Be Kind

I've recently been re-reading one of Bob Goff's books...Love Does for kids. What I love most about this book is the simplicity. God's hope for us is so simple and His love for us is flawless. Yet, as sinners (humans), we bring the capital 'C' to the word complicated.

In the times we're in, emotions are high, life is hard, and so much is happening all at once...it's easy to get sucked into things. It's easy to have our already finicky feelings be led by others or current events. Social media platforms have allowed us to easily spread both truths and lies. News stations have chosen sides (and twist the stories to align) instead of just reporting the facts. Noisy people have been able to share their opinions so freely that it's become harder to listen to our own inner thoughts and make decisions. There's so many noises trying to tell us how we should feel, what we should think, or what we should do.

I don't know all the facts and I don't want to get into a debate about all the issues...but I do feel like I know how we can start to fix a lot of the brokenness. 

KINDNESS

It's such a simple word, with such an easy definition. Oxford's describes it as "the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate." And the Bible speaks of kindness as being selfless, compassionate, and merciful.

So how did we end up here in present times?

It's simple...we laid down our kindness somewhere. We let our feelings start leading our actions, our responses. We complicated the simplicity of how we're supposed to be towards one another (KIND). Somewhere we got caught up in different always meaning bad, different always meaning enemy.

That's just  not true!

We can disagree.
We can be different.
We can look different.
We can dress different.
We can believe different.
We can vote different.
We can have hope in different things.
We can dream different dreams.
We can speak different ways.
We can like different things.
We can eat different things.
We can achieve different ways.
We can fail different ways.
We can live different ways.
We can learn different ways.
We can teach different ways.
We can listen to different music.
We can read different books.
We can watch different television and films.
We can raise the next generation in different ways.
We can be different in every single way EXCEPT how we treat each other...
We MUST be the same in this category! We HAVE to BE KIND TO EVERYONE.

And that's why I love Bob's book so much!! It's such a simple reminder of how easy it is to just CHOOSE kindness, to CHOOSE love...ALL the time.

Here's 46 takeaways from his book (one for each story)......
1. God's love for us doesn't change...EVER. Not even on our best or worst days.
2. We need to give love away like we're made of it.
3. Our words have tremendous power...make them words of LIFE.
4. We get to forgive people.
5. When someone is lost, the best words you could ever speak to them is 'I'm with you.'
6. The more we stand in Awe of His creations, the less we'll stand in judgment of each other.
7. Jesus makes us able to serve no matter what shape we're in. 
8. When God thinks about you (and every other person), He gets a big smile on His face.
9. God doesn't delight in our successes; He delights in our attempts.
10. Jesus wants to heal us completely...inside and out.
11. God always comes to look for us when we're lost.
12. We show God how much we love Him by how much we love each other.
13. Being friends with someone without expecting anything in return, has the power to change the world.
14. Making time to sit at a table with both new and old friends is important.
15. To make a friends, you must first be a friend.
16. The world will know what we really believe when they see the way that we love others.
17. There is incredible power in loving people...regardless of their status and reputation.
18. God wants us to love everyone.
19. Jesus is always close by and He delights when we ask Him to help us with our biggest hurts.
20. In God's Kingdom there will always be enough to go around.
21. You know you have enough...not by what you have, but by who you have.
22. Sometimes we need to see that we're forgiven instead of only hearing the words.
23. The only way to have it all is to give away all you have.
24. Jesus said that real leaders love their enemies, serve the poor, and treat others the way they want to be treated.
25. When we follow Jesus, we stop settling for 'normal.'
26. The things we create are only as good as the foundations they are built on.
27. An important part of loving others is giving them a chance to make things right when they've made a mistake.
28. Bible doing > Bible studying...put your faith into action.
29. Use your voice and life to make the world a better place.
30. By giving away your love, you live out the kind of love Jesus talks about.
31. When you dream, don't be afraid of what might go wrong.
32. Hurting someone else will never solve a problem.
33. When you feel discouraged...Look up, Look around, Look beside you.
34. Fill your days with acts of love and grace.
35. Make people feel more than just invited...Make them feel welcomed.
36. When people hurt us or let us down...We should meet their acts of meanness/insensitivity with acts of kindness.
37. God doesn't want us to measure ourselves against anyone but Him and His extravagant love.
38. Never quit loving or forgiving people.
39. We don't need years or weeks or even days to become friends with someone...It can happen in just a few minutes.
40. No amount of marks (mistakes) can change that you're God's masterpiece.
41. Sometimes all we can do is walk through sadness with each other.
42. When you do good and make it about you...you can't point people 's attention to Jesus.
43. The words that you say to yourself or others are really important. We get to remind ourselves about who God is and who He made us to be.
44. Jesus came to draw people close to Him, close to each other...so we can help one another.
45. Instead of telling people how much farther they should go...Celebrate how far they've come.
46. Jesus is always inviting us to follow Him.

Nowhere in any of those do you find that kindness and love are second best to how you handle each other or yourself. Differences and similarities mean nothing if we lead with our shared purpose. We CAN heal. We CAN change. We CAN do better. We CAN choose kindness. We CAN choose love.

So!!! What are you waiting for?! Start right now!! What's one thing you can do today to spread kindness into the world? No act of kindness is ever insignificant!!

'Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works."
Hebrews 10:24

Never Give Up!