Kindness Check-Up

Everyone likes being thought about in a way which motivates someone to do something good for them. Kindness is an incredibly attractive quality that often involves goodness, thoughtfulness, compassion and going out of one's way to do something considerate for someone else without obligation. Kindness is not self-seeking and usually entails some form of giving which could be in the form of generosity or extending forgiveness or mercy. It is evidence of compassion or empathy. Kind acts are rare and sweet. They can touch a part of us that yearns for but does not always expect it. That is why kindness can often be met with an exclamation of, "You didn't have to do that!", as if part of us feels undeserving. Perhaps because we are often unkind rather than kind.

Kindness in Galatians 5:22 can be defined as tender concern. It flows from a tender heart. The Message calls it "a sense of compassion in the heart", while The Passion Translation uses the phrase, "kindness in action". True kindness is more than good thoughts, it becomes kindness when it leads to action based in love.

Do you consider yourself to be a kind person? In what ways have you shown kindness recently? It is worth considering that some opposites of kindness could be severity, cruelty or pitilessness. It may be helpful to remember that the fruit of the Spirit is God's character being produced in us. God is consistently kind but we are becoming kind as we let the Holy Spirit work in and through us. This means that as Christians we should make a lifestyle of kindness a goal and regularly check our lives for signs of kindness.

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you do a kindness check-up as you Write the Scriptures below:

Ephesians 4:31-32

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Proverbs 11:17

A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself. 

Colossians 3:12

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

Proverbs 31:26

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

Micah 6:8

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

1 Corinthians 13:4

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant.

2 Corinthians 6:4-6

But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love.

Subscribe to receive your weekly reflection by email along with seven related Scriptures to meditate on and write out if you choose. I'll also send you a free Scripture Writing sheet.