Kindness Isn’t Enough

Kindness Isn’t Enough

You must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

Pulling into the drive-thru line at the coffee shop, I asked the kids if we should pay for the next car. A chorus of cheers went up from the backseat, with squirming and excited giggles of anticipation as we watched a red sedan pull up into the line. As we paid and drove away, the kids’ eyes were glued to the rear window, hoping to catch the magical moment when the driver received the good news.

“Okay, who wants to pray for the woman in the red sedan?” I asked as I glanced into my rearview mirror. Suddenly my rowdy peanut gallery turned suspiciously quiet. When continued silence met my second request for prayer, I recognized a disconnect in my children: they felt the joy of doing the random kind act but were reluctant to bow their heads in prayer for the person we’d just blessed.

It’s often easier to buy someone a cup of coffee and check off our good deed for the day than it is to set aside time and energy to pray for that same person. Meeting a temporary physical need frequently requires less of an investment than meeting a spiritual need through intentional prayer.

Living a life of kindness is not about simply performing random acts of kindness for the thrill of it and then continuing on with our lives. The point of living with intentional kindness is to be a physical manifestation of the love of Christ, to tangibly reveal God’s love through actions, and to practice our faith on a daily basis.

Realizing that my kids needed to be reminded of what biblical kindness means, we had a conversation about kindness, God, and prayer, and how these things must be intertwined in our lives. As I intentionally guide my kids through what it means to live out their faith, I trust that God will take these conversations and this faith journey my family walks, and tuck it deep into their hearts. My hope is that they will continue to follow this path with God even as adults.

—Julie

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Include a child you know and love in a kind act, and then talk to them about the meaning of biblical kindness.