I am sharing with you an excerpt from an article written by John W. Kennedy, which I got from the Christianity Today.com newsletter. I think this pretty much sums up kindness–giving to others sacrificially without expecting anything in return. It is unselfish because it doesn’t serve our interests. It is giving out of compassion, not out of the desire for God to bless us more. Kindness is not an investment for material blessings, but happens because of compassion. A kind person will share what he has and hopes to see that his kindness will pay off when the other person also becomes kind to others.
That I am working on. I can be kind to others, especially when the Lord leads me to do something for someone else, whether I know him or her personally or not, and whether that would entail service, money, food, or time on my part. However, there are just two people that I find it hard to be kind to, and which I am asking the Lord to work in my heart. I find it hard to be sincerely kind to them, because deep in my heart, i believe that they are not sincere to me as well. However, God didn’t say that I should only be kind to the kind, but to everyone. So please help me God.
Here is the article:
Re’na Garcia is a 24-year-old wife and mother of two preschoolers, a full-time nanny to two other children, and director of student ministries at a Nashville Evangelical Covenant church. She leads a busy life, but her favorite part of the day is when she goes out to RAOK her world—as in performing “Random Acts of Kindness.”
“God puts people in our lives everyday for us to touch,” Garcia says. “So many times we’re too busy and we miss those opportunities.”
Garcia believes that RAOK—doing something nice for other people with no expectation of anything in return—is simply living out the compassionate and unselfish attitude that Jesus expects of His followers.
“People were drawn to Christ not because He stood on a mountain and preached, but because He filled their needs,” Garcia says. “He fed them. He healed them. He touched lives.” People may be more open to hearing about the gospel as they see us modeling Christ’s behavior, Garcia says.