Kindness is a natural
application of love because it makes one feel loved.
It is the ability to be accepting when everything
within you wants to be rejecting. It is a strategy for
forgiveness when you are wronged or when someone takes
advantage of you. When your trusting spirit has been
violated, you still love by being kind; you stop
fighting, and you start forgiving.
Kindness means you are pleasant to be around because
your countenance is inviting and shows interest. It is
as much an attitude as anything, and it is the ability
to see beyond the immediate to the potential. Kindness
means you go out of your way to love someone. People
who are unlovable become prime candidates for your
kindness. A family member who is far from God, deep
down desires unconditional love and kindness.
Love keeps you kind, especially toward those who are
closest to you. They do not deserve your dredging up
hurtful, bitter, and unforgiving words from the past.
Love is kind in its conversations. Harsh and abrasive
speech is absent from kind conversation. Love produces
words that are “kind and tenderhearted” (Ephesians
4:32). Love is able to extend kind words that cheer up
heavy hearts (Proverbs 16:24). Pray to God for
kindness to reign in your relationships with kids and
teenagers. Children translate kindness into love, for
it is their language of love.
We all have blown up and lost our temper over
disrespectful attitudes and actions from our
offspring. The temptation is to disrespect them when
we have been disrespected, and
the natural
response is to become angry when someone else spews
out his or her frustrations on us. But God has not
called us to natural responses but supernatural
ones. Kindness in the face of frustration is a fruit
of the Spirit, and only through submission to your
Savior will kindness come front and center. The
fullness of the Holy Spirit in your life is what
causes kindness to come forth.
Lastly, loving others with kindness does not preclude
difficult decisions. Kindness is not patronizing, but
it is authentic care and concern, and it is able to
deliver hard truth that softens hard hearts. You can
dismiss an employee with kindness. Likewise, you can
disagree with kindness in a heated debate. Harshness
has no hold on those who are controlled by
Christ.
Therefore, kindly love people through difficult
situations. Serve those who are experiencing financial
difficulties, for example. Kindness is king for
followers of King Jesus, so love with kindness and
watch them come around and embrace Christ. Kindness
kills sin and sadness, and brings to life love,
forgiveness, and hope. Allow Jesus’ loving kindness to
flow through you, for kindness toward the needy honors
God (Proverbs 14:31). Kindness resides where love is
applied, because love is kind.
Taken from the February 9th reading in the 365-day
devotional book, “Seeking Daily the Heart of
God”…
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