HAPPY NEW YEAR, sweet friends. It is a popular thing these days to start a new year with a word or phrase that you would like to focus on during the year...what the "new" me should try to improve!!! I don't usually do the popular thing, but for some reason the Lord kept bringing "kindness" to my heart as something He might like me to do better...maybe something the world around me needs more of. Our grandchildren love the movie "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss. Hear what one of the characters says: "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
Oddly enough, in Galatians 5:22-23 passage on the "fruit of the Spirit", "kindness" is nestled in between "patience" and "goodness". I think that is profound because it takes both of those to produce this character trait. Do you know that in the Old Testament, there are 246 passages about the "kindness of God"...His very nature reveals kindness to all those He loves. I think if He is kind than we must be kind. Someone once said "Kindness is how love behaves".
There is a story about the famous African American educator, Booker T. Washington, President of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He was walking through a wealthy neighborhood one day when a resident approached him and asked him if he wanted to earn some extra money chopping wood. He smiled, rolled up his sleeves and did the humble chore she requested. A little girl recognized him and revealed his identity to the lady afterwards. The next day she sent him a very apologetic note and he answered saying: "It's perfectly alright, madam. Occasionally I enjoy a little manual labor. Besides, it's always a delight to do something for a friend." From HAVING A MARY SPIRIT, Joanna Weaver.
Are there "friends" around you that you could do something for? My sweet husband in a blog this week quoted D.L. Moody: "our greatest fear should not be failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter." The Greek word for "kind" is chrestos which translates as "useful". Is there something we could do today that might be useful to another? Something that might really matter?
For further study: Psalm 23:6, Lamentations 3:22, Micah 6:8, Romans 11:22, 1 Cor. 13:4, Galatians 5:22-23, Colossians 3:12, 2 Tim. 2:24, Titus 3:4-7.
Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.
Love,
Holly
