SPIRITUAL VITAMIN DEVOTIONAL

"Be kind and compassionate to one another..."
~Ephesians 4:32

When my daughter was little, she would sometimes be mean to her brother. When she did not feel well, she would pinch him and pull his hair. She also did not like sharing. No matter how much I tried to teach her to be "nice" she would say "no". One night when I was tucking her into bed I explained to my baby girl that God said we are to be kind and tenderhearted to others. When it came time to say her prayers, she asked God to help her be "kind and tenderhearted" toward her brother. Every night after that, she would ask for God's help and He gave it to her. She is kind and very tenderhearted to her brother and others.

There is a difference between being nice and being kind. Niceness has more to do with manners and being pleasant. The word "kind" actually means to be employed, to be useful, to furnish what is needed. God does not call us to be nice to one another but to be kind, to be useful and help each other. Kindness is more about "doing" something for someone else and may cost you something. In fact, scripture tells us that we are to clothe ourselves with compassion and kindness. 1Corinthians 13:4 tells us, "love is patient, love is kind..." To be kind is to show love and love is sacrificial. Love spends its energy in doing random acts of kindness. Random acts of meeting the needs of others.

Being nice and polite is good but showing kindness to others is what God requires of us. Are you kind to others? Do you do random acts of kindness for your family, your friends or your co-workers? Are you kind to strangers or to those who are unkind to you? God showed us kindness when he sacrificed his son on the alter. This was the most costly act of kindness of all time. "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy."

Prayer:
Father, forgive me when I focus on being nice and polite rather than being kind. Forgive me when I am selfish and self-centered and when I take out my frustrated feelings on others. Thank you for showing the riches of your grace expressed in your kindness to me in Christ. Help me to reflect your love and kindness to others. Help me to take the focus off of self and spend my energy in doing random acts of kindness to glorify you.

Copyright © 2001-2009 Deborah Collins.

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