Love is Kind

Now for the second attribute of one who loves. Remember the first was patience. The second is kindness. I won't go back over how the two are knitted together. I will just say that kindness is not an easy task. We are surrounded by influences that would cause us to act unkind toward those around us. I don't think we are surrounded by people with kindness as a natural part of their makeup. When I think on kindness it causes me to consider the word KIND. I use the word to describe things such as "that is a kind of tree" etc.... so when I think about it to be kind is to be kind of like Christ. To do so embodies love. Christ is Love and He is all about Love. So if we are to be kind we must be Christlike or like Christ. Talk about a challenge.

Once again I feel that I must really focus on being kind. It is not natural to me. I wonder if I took a survey of men and women what the percentage of each sex would be considered kind people? I even think it is more difficult for men to be kind than women? I wonder why this is? It probably all goes back to our growing up years. Remember these are my opinions....not necessarily facts. But I think we grew up to believe it was not manly to be gentle and kind. In fact I think it is something we must learn to be. One might argue that kindness will be the natural overflow of the Holy Spirit when a person accepts Christ and begins a relationship with Him. You could support this argument by examining the lives of men who were bitter, mean, depressed etc. and then after their relationship with Christ began their lives changed immediately.

For some of us this is not the case. To become kind and gentle is a process that can take some time. I really believe in my own case I had to be broken bit by bit for kindness to begin to take a foothold. So much had to be torn away...especially my pride. I am slowly learning to put others first. A great phrase I have heard is that "I am third...God First, others Second and I'm third." If we focus on this thought and practice it we will become people who are kind. I truly doubt that many people would describe me as a kind man. While I have known people over the years that are always described just that way. You know that when you are with a group of believers say on Sunday morning you can be the kindest most polite person in the world until you get in your car after church and tear your way out of the parking lot.

• So this being kind can be a mystery. It can be a real challenge for us. I think again that I come back to this conclusion. Kindness is something we must focus on and then practice. When we focus long enough and practice kindness long enough it will become an attribute just like patience. So I would urge us all to not be discouraged but simply focus on being the kindest most Christlike person we can be and as always pray...pray hard for God to help us in this quest.