OH LORD GOD, LET US FORGET NOT TO BE KIND

Kindness, a simple act that can mean so much. In church last Sunday our Preacher talked about kindness, and then in my woman’s study group, we once again talked on the same subject. That was twice in one 2 hour period of time. Kindness is not something that costs a lot of money, and it is easily given. So why would my Preacher and Sunday school teacher both feel the need to have a lesson plan based around the subject?

If you saw my post on Wednesday, you read about me talking about negativity. I had a couple of anonymous commenters that left less than kind comments. That is not a random occurrence. I have heard many bloggers talk about this same issue. Celebrities experience unkind comments on a regular basis. Is this because people on the internet, or on television and movies, don’t seem like “real” people?

Do you practice kindness is your daily life? How many of us will let someone pull in front of us when you are in a long line of traffic? How about when you see someone with only a few items in the checkout line at the grocery store? We can extend small acts of kindness easily, so why do we let the enemy bring out the worst in us?

There has been a small movement recently, where strangers “pay it forward.” I have only experienced this once in my life, and I was shocked when it happened. I was traveling to a woman’s club meeting, and I had to go on a toll road. When I pulled up to pay my toll, the toll booth worker handed me a slip of paper that said someone had paid my toll. I thanked them, gave them my toll and told them to pay the driver’s toll behind me. I have no idea how many other drivers in the line did the same thing.

A small act of kindness can create a large ripple. This week lets start the ripple. Let’s send waves of kindness across the world. I would love for you to share acts of kindness that you have received or forwarded to someone else. It would be inspirational, and others might like to extend the same acts in other parts of the country.

I leave you with a prayer written by Mary Stewart in 1904. This is the woman’s club collect that is recited at every woman’s club meeting I attend.

Keep us, O God, from pettiness;
let us be large in thought, in word, in deed.

Let us be done with fault-finding and
leave off self-seeking.

May we put away all pretense and meet each
other face to face — without self-pity
and without prejudice.

May we never be hasty in judgment and
always generous.

Let us take time for all things;
make us to grow calm, serene, gentle.

Teach us to put into action our better impulses,
straightforward and unafraid.

Grant that we may realize it is the little
things that create differences,
that in the big things of life we are at one.

And may we strive to touch and to know the great,
common human heart of us all, and
O Lord God, let us forget not to be kind!

–Mary Stewart

Have a blessed weekend!