I will forever remember a conversation I had with my Aunt Ruth. She was my mother’s sister and one of the finest Christian women I have ever known. She grew up in the shadows of her sisters and felt like she was not blessed with the natural abilities of her sisters. She told me, when she was in her 70’s, that growing up she knew she would never be as smart as her sister Lois, my mom. She also knew she was never as musically gifted as her sister Gladys who loved to play the piano and sing.
So, she told me this is what she prayed for her life. She asked the Lord to make her the kindest person in her family and indeed that she was. Interestingly enough as life passed and we all grew older it was the company of Aunt Ruth that everyone wanted. You could always count on her to speak from a heart of kindness and wisdom. She was the last of her family to pass but probably left the most powerful effect on all of our lives.
Kindness is even more of a sparkling jewel in our openly hostile world today. Some, who are trying to make America Great Again by building walls, separate families, charge tariffs to the world and decreasing our involvement in influencing the world as a peacekeeping nation. What made America great in the first place was it being a nation where people could come for opportunity and safety. We became a nation where anyone could find hope and far more kindness than where they were born.
On the Statue of Liberty, we read these profound and kind words;
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Kindness is a fruit of the Spirit that He wants to grow in you. Kindness is the mindset that every person has value simply because we are all created in the image of God. It can be expressed to others in random acts of kindness and even towards ourselves as we give ourselves grace and forgiveness.
Kindness is the Samaritan man stopping to care for the Jew beaten up and left on the side of the road. It is expressing love to others by not keeping records of wrongs. It is believing and acting upon the desire that others needs are more important of our own because we know that God will be able to take care of us.
What would your life be like if you began to joyfully dive kindness to those around you? If instead of having a “me first” attitude you placed others first because you really believe the words Jesus spoke when He said the first will be last and the last will be first in heaven. If we were to truly believe that if we give ourselves to helping others instead of hoarding as much as we can for ourselves our world will be a better place.
After all, it was because “God so Loved the World that He GAVE His one and only Son” to pay for all of our sins. So, you come home from a long day at work and instead of expecting a home cooked meal from your wife who has been home with the children all day you avoid landing in your recliner expecting to be served and you serve her by taking charge of the kids, and you did the dishes and you give them their baths and you put them to bed and pray over them.
That is what the fruit of kindness will do in your life. You, as well as everyone around you, will be blessed and you will find God giving you the strength to be kind to others. That kindness will refresh you and those around you will truly appreciate you more.
Thank you, Aunt Ruth, for showing me this life lesson for so many decades. I pray that you will be filled with the Holy Spirit today and that you will walk by means of the Spirit so that you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh but will bear the fruit of the Spirit of Kindness.