Reflections on Kindness
Colossians 3:12 reminds us that as God’s chosen people we are to clothe ourselves with kindness (among other things). Kindness is a key word to define our Christian faith. I want to borrow a few sayings from greater minds than mine about the actions of kindness:
Kind hearts are the gardens,
Kind thoughts are the roots,
Kind words are the flowers,
Kind deeds are the fruits.
Take care of your garden,
And keep out the weeds,
Fill it with sunshine;
Kind words and kind deeds.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow[1]
Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
At all the times you can
To all the people you can
As long as ever you can!
John Wesley[1]
“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now! Let me not defer it, or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
Unknown[1]
Centuries ago, a young man, who had renounced great earthly riches to follow Christ, met a leper on the road. His first impulse was hastily to turn away. Suddenly his heart was filled with love and Christ-like pity for the suffering outcast. He opened his pocketbook and emptied its contents into the bony hands of the leper as he spoke comforting words to the sufferer. That young man was St. Francis of Assisi. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40)
Walter B. Knight[1]
Let us pray:
O Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son declared to his disciples, I am among you as he that serveth: Take from us, we pray thee ,the spirit of selfishness, and deepen within us the spirit of kind service; that we may think less of our interests and more of the needs of others, after the perfect example of the same thy Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.[2]
[1] “Knight’s Treasury of 2,000 Illustrations” by Walter B. Knight, p196-7.
[2] “Prayers for Every Occasion” by Frank Colquhoun.
