No matter how much we’ve thought about kindness this year with our intentional time of The Kindness Project, I’m sure you’ve missed many opportunities to be kind. I know I have. And it’s not just that I’ve missed opportunities to be kind, I’ve even been the opposite of kind in some moments and too many of them have been with the ones closest to me.
I just had this conversation with my 7-year-old son, Bennett. He had made decisions not to listen and to be mean to his sister. He’s really a good kid, but as all parent/child relationships go – I was losing my cool for some of his decisions. And I realized once again, that my actions (although teaching and discipline were necessary) were looking like the opposite of kind.
I was reminded of this passage from Romans 7:15-19. “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. (NLT)”
At this time with Bennett, I was able to tell him (and remind myself!) that it’s often easier for us to do what we’re not supposed to do. Making decisions that are right and kind are hard! But it’s the narrow path of righteousness that we are called to follow. So we need God’s strength to help us, because it’s too much to do it on our own. So, when we make intentional actions of doing what is right, even when we don’t feel like it, this is good practice for us to make it easier for us.
I think that The Kindness Project has given us all intentional moments that have been good practice for doing kind things. I hope that you’ve been able to create better habits this year that will carry on. And don’t give up hope for the times you have failed. If you want to be more kind, keep trying! If you want to give up a bad behavior, don’t quit quitting!
Amy Givens, Director of Youth Ministries
