Love Your Enemies - The One Year Daily Acts of Kindness Devotional

Love Your Enemies

Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.

Luke 6:35

When I wandered into my garden last week, I stumbled upon a tiny baby bunny inside my supposedly secure perimeter rabbit fence. With my neighborhood brimming over with rascally rabbits every spring, it’s a running joke in my family when I mutter teasing threats against those lettuce-munching critters in my best Elmer Fudd voice.

I called the kids over, and as they cooed over this tiny creature, the irony of the situation was not lost on me. The little fellow was the mortal enemy of my pea plants, and yet I could not help but ooh and aah over him before relocating him to my lilac hedge.

I continued to think about that baby bunny in the days after his relocation and about the idea of extending mercy and compassion toward those we might label as enemies. I think we are often too quick to define people who have hurt us as enemies. In the past, I’ve labeled someone an enemy, only to discover that she was facing her own personal crisis about which I knew nothing, and that her actions stemmed, in part, from that crisis. While this person’s circumstances didn’t excuse her actions, understanding them helped me realize that she wasn’t an enemy. She was a hurting person making hurtful decisions.

What would happen if we were a bit slower to use the enemy label and quicker to consider that there might be something else going on underneath the offense? What if we were slower to make assumptions and quicker to show mercy and compassion?

That baby bunny got me thinking and praying about whether there was anyone in my life that I had labeled as an enemy and written off. I was encouraged to do exactly what Scripture says: to be kind to those I tend to think of as enemies.

—Julie

— Today’s Act of Kindness —

Who have you labeled as an enemy? Prayerfully reconsider that label and ask God for wisdom about what may be going on in that person’s life. Then, go out of your way to show them kindness.