A Happy Act Of Kindness

A Happy Act of Kindness

Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10:43-45

Boston is one of our favorite cities. Les grew up there. And each time we get back to “Beantown” for a speaking engagement we try to do something different with our down time. Last year we visited the Holocaust Memorial at Quincy Market, where five of six pillars are inscribed with stories that speak of the cruelty and suffering in the camps. The sixth features a story that Gerda Weissmann Klein tells about her friend Ilse Kleinzahler. She tells that story, among others, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune:

My friend Ilse Kleinzahler, who died a week before we were liberated, once found a raspberry in the gutter on the way to the factory. It was in Grunberg, one of the most miserable camps, and she saved it all day long. She carried it in her pocket—the temptation must have been incredible—and she gave it to me that night on a leaf. She had plucked a leaf through the barbed wire, washed it, and presented me with one slightly bruised raspberry. Most people think of (the Holocaust) as unrelieved horror. I like to remember some of the things in camp, how people helped each other . . . that there was friendship and love and caring.^a

As difficult as it may be for us to fathom the world those girls were living in at the time, it’s easy to be inspired by such a gracious and happy act of kindness: a simple berry, treasured and presented to a friend. It’s a breathtaking example of the generosity one person can offer another—and nowhere is that truer than in marriage.

Imagine a marriage in which you offer your prized possession to your mate, whatever it might be. Maybe it’s your time, when you have a pile of work; or your listening ear, when you’d planned on watching TV; or your presence, when a friend has invited you to do something else. Your simple yet spectacular gift may be known to you only. But you will enjoy all the rewards a happy act of kindness offers.

How can you use Ilse’s kind act, in the midst of all her suffering, as an inspiration to show extraordinary kindness to your spouse?

To be rich in admiration and free from envy, to rejoice greatly in the good of others, to love with such generosity of heart that your love is still a dear possession in absence or unkindness—these are the gifts of fortune which money cannot buy.

—Robert Louis Stevenson

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