Kindness

When I was little one of my best friends lived down the street.  I loved our friendship but one thing I really liked about her was her mother.  She always had a kind comment for me.  She recognized things that I enjoyed and things that I was good at and pointed them out to me.  When they moved out of state after a few years my bestie's mother wrote me a going-away letter.  She told me that I was a beautiful writer and that she looked forward to hearing what kind of woman I would become one day.  I was only 12 years old but I still have that letter tucked away somewhere...

I was cleaning the living room tonite and I looked over at this statue holding one of my favorite prints and for some reason I had a memory of that letter.  I don't know if it was the way the sun was streaming in, or the fact that it had been a long, tiring day, but it made me stop for a minute in my tracks.

"What have I done to bless someone today?"

Sometimes our kindness is very intentional.  For instance, we donate to the Red Cross to help out those in need.  We hold the door open a little longer for someone who looks like they are having a hard time getting through.  We hold our children when they fall down.  We miss a gym class to have coffee with a friend who needs to talk.  We fold our husband's shirts the way they like them just to make them happy.  We drop off chicken soup to our mother-in-law when they have a cold.  Little day-to-day things that we think about and do, because it's just the nice thing to do.

Then there is the kindness that is rather unintentional.  The things that people say unknowingly that can change our lives forever.  I have very specific memories of things that people did for me or said to me that led me to believe that there really IS a God.  I don't think they knew the impact they would have on me. 

I pray today that I can be a vessel for God's kindness. That God will use me to make comments or commit acts of kindness that can and will forever change someone else's life.  Isn't it exciting to think how God can use us if we ask him?