BE KIND

Today is a tender day for me. It’s been 10 years today since my Brother returned home to his Heavenly Father. I still miss him. I am so glad to know that someday I will see him again but it make my heart hurt for all we have missed sharing with him here. He was a kind person. I always joked that he was the world’s best moocher, but he also knew how to give, to everyone. Not big financial gifts (heck he was living merger himself) but would give what little he could and most of all would give of himself. He would give random acts of kindness. He always seemed to give people the benefit of the doubt.

It is so obvious to me that we all need to take the time each day to consider what others might be going through before we fly off the handle at them. To remember that we are all just trying to fight a good fight and make it home on what can at times be a very rough road. Maybe the man racing through traffic, cutting you off, is trying to get to the hospital where they just took his daughter after she got injured playing a sport? The women who "took" your parking space at the store might be hurrying to get in and out because her four month old is violently ill at home and she has to hurry to get meds in him? Maybe the person who you meet today is remembering the loved one who they are missing, so they are distracted and not paying as close attention to things they should.

Just last week I just about got run over as a women hurried to the front of Sam’s club with her cart. I almost said something rude as she about ran me over but held back. I am so grateful I did. As I continued very soon this lady was back at the jewelry counter and there was quite a commotion. Seems the jewelry employee had suddenly passed out behind the locked doors and she was rushing to the front to get her help.

There are oftentimes reasons why people are not courteous to us, just as there are oftentimes reasons why we are discourteous to others. Remember, the Bible says men have entertained angels unaware, so how do we know that isn't the case with us? I would rather err on the side of being kind to someone not deserving than to be unkind to an angelic being!!

I think that this time of the year we all are a little more aware and kind to those around us. Today’s challenge is to be kind to everyone you meet. Go out of your way to perform random acts of kindness. You never know what the person you meet is going through. And the bigger challenge is to show kindness to those who do not show kindness to you, just in case they are in need of more grace than you are at that moment.

BE KIND TO EVERYONE, FOR WE ARE ALL FIGHTING A HARD BATTLE.