Try a Little Kindness
Greetings, Visitors and New Beginnings Family! If you want, pour yourself a cup of coffee and then pull up a chair for the latest edition of Coffee with Gary entitled, “Try A Little Kindness.”
A week ago, I had a phone conversation with a Christian friend I haven’t spoken with in a long time. The call was encouraging and enjoyable as we shared examples of God’s handiwork in our lives. During our conversation, my friend commented on the general mood in our society today. To make his point, he mentioned the rudeness his wife observed at a supposedly happy event she recently attended.
To sum it up, what is missing in our society today is kindness. Jesus instructed his followers within the context of loving our enemies to be both generous and kind (Luke 6:30-31). “The Golden Rule,” as it is known, is an easily understood principle to help us determine how we are to treat people. Simply stated, we are to do unto others as we want others to do unto us.
Having just written about generosity, I thought about the difference between generosity and kindness. Although these words are synonymous with the other, they are also quite different. Generosity seems to emphasize the sharing of our resources and/or skills to help others in need. Conversely, kindness relates to how well we treat one another.
Throughout this past week, I have had several God-given opportunities to practice kindness. For instance, while I was waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store, I noticed a man behind me holding two furnace filters sitting in a battery-powered chair. Now, if I was only purchasing furnace filters, I would have thought nothing of him. But my cart was full of groceries, and I asked the man if he wanted to go ahead of me. The man thanked me and happily went to the front of the line.
The next day on my morning walk, I noticed an unaccompanied dog wandering around the neighborhood. Now, after walking with my wife these past five months, I have learned where many of my neighbors live. Moreover, I know where most of the dogs in our neighborhood live. Consequently, I walked to the owner’s house to kindly inform her that her dog was on the loose. She thanked me and told me that her dog never strayed far from home.
Continuing on our walk, we came to an intersection and stopped before crossing the street. At that time, there was a car in our way waiting to turn onto the busy crossroad. Accordingly, my wife and I stood on the corner, waiting for the vehicle to turn before crossing the street. Several seconds later, we realized that we were blocking the driver’s view of the oncoming traffic. As a result, we proceeded to cross over behind the car. It wasn’t long after we got out of the way that the car safely turned.
In closing, if you are tempted to demand your place in line, scold your neighbor for letting their dog loose, or insist on your right of way at a crosswalk, remember to “Try a Little Kindness.” I think you will be happy you did, and I’m sure the recipient of your kindness will be too.
Your fellow pilgrim in looking for a country of our own (Hebrews 11:13-16),
Gary