Journal Entry ~ 05/09/18

31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. - Ephesians 4:31-32

I just realized I spent the majority of the week in verse 31, focusing on the things we should be putting away, and I’ve only left the last day to focus on what we should be doing...but that’s consistent with my personality. I see a list of don’ts long before I see a list of do’s.  My tendency is often to focus on what’s wrong rather than focus on what’s right. I’m working on it, but clearly I still have a long way to go. 

Kindness is a tender heart and a nurturing spirit, it is a gentle attitude toward others filled with grace and mercy. When we are kind, we go out of our way to put another’s needs before our own. We have no consideration for our sacrifice in our act of kindness - in other words, it’s not kind when we point out our kind act, or we mention our sacrifice to others. When we make a big deal of our kind acts, we are focused on ourselves. Kindness is a consideration only for others. 

We all have people in our lives who are easy to be kind to - these are the gentle souls that make us feel so good about doing kind works because they respond with such praise and encouragement. It’s important to note that this exhortation is not meant for those people.  God doesn’t need to remind us to be kind to those people who are easy to love. This exhortation is for people who are difficult to love. It’s challenging to be kind to people who are prickly or grumpy, and God knows that - this is the very reason He reminds us to be kind and tender hearted. 

When the Spirit fills us, our hearts become soft toward those around us, and our desire is to bring them goodness. Kindness expressed in action is goodness.  Kindness is the burning desire to share with others all that He has done for us, and goodness is following through on that desire. We must daily seek His filling our hearts with the desires of the Spirit, so that we put down what we want and pick up what only He wants.


Press on ~ you are loved 💗

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