Starting Conversations About Kindness

Starting Conversations about Kindness

Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart.

Proverbs 3:3

Suppertime at our house is a gathering time for our family. It’s when we discuss the events of the day, activities that are happening, and how everyone is doing. It’s also the time when we pray together, share needs, and talk about how to incorporate kindness into our everyday lives. As a parent, I find these meals to be especially meaningful as they have become a way for our family to connect with one another and to convey our family values on a regular basis.

These days, I am regularly struck by my family’s ability to notice when there is opportunity to show kindness toward others and to note when others have been kind to them. For example, my kids have mentioned the child at school who was left out, and then they made sure to include him in activities. They’ve remembered the neighbors they like to visit regularly just to say hello. These acts are seemingly small and easily dismissible individually, but collectively they are creating habits of kindness in each of us.

Creating habits of kindness can start with daily or even weekly conversations. Start small and simple by asking questions like these: Who did you show kindness to today? Who showed kindness to you? Do you know someone who has been going through a hard time lately? What could you do to help?

By initiating conversations about kindness with others, we will begin to become more aware of ways we can show kindness to others. Again, these do not have to be big things—simple and small is the way to start. Did you hold the door open for the person behind you, smile and say hello to a stranger, or encourage a coworker? All these things matter. No kind act is too small to count, and talking about it with others is the first step in making kind acts a regular habit—a practical way to bind them around your neck and write them on your hearts.

—Kendra

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Ask your child, your spouse, or a friend how they showed kindness today and what it meant to them.