Optimist Roundtable
By Martha Sykes
When we read about the work in Jesus’s life, He was often motivated by compassion and kindness.
He modeled kindness for all of us who follow Him.
When he fed crowds of people, it was because He was concerned about their hunger. When He healed the sick, it was not to show His power. In fact, if you recall, He often asked people not to tell anyone. He was just moved to compassion because of His kindness. One of the best known parables, the parable of the good Samaritan, is about one person helping another person in need. It’s all about human kindness.
It was so important to Jesus. At one time, He told his disciples, “ this is how people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
According to Jesus, the way we show that we belong to him is that we love one another, and that we can act out our love by being kind to one another. And of course the reason we are to do that, and the reason we are able to do that is because of God’s kindness toward us.
In Ephesians, chapter 4, it tells us, “ Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ, has forgiven you”. So, God is kind to us, loving us, forgiving us, guiding us, strengthening us, blessing us, and we pass that on by being kind to one another.
I love the prayer of this little girl who said, “ God, make the bad people good, and make the good people nice“. Children often have wisdom that we need to share.
One of the reasons I chose to write about kindness this week is because our community lost a very kind person this past weekend and I just wanted to pay tribute to someone who was a true reflection of the kindness of Jesus.
Beverly Nevel was kind to every person she ever met and everyone she ever had a relationship with in her lifetime. Her beautiful smile, her caring ways, her compassion, and her prayer life all made an impact on countless hearts!! She will be missed , but we can all thank God for her touching our lives with her kindness and her faith.
Heaven has gained a wonderful servant of Jesus and we all have treasured memories of her in our hearts forever!
