Optimist Roundtable
By Martha Sykes
I love this prayer that I read from a little girl who said, “Dear God, make the bad people good, and make the good people nice”.
Kindness seems to be a popular word these days and there are even schools celebrating kind deeds. Jesus, our model, stood for all the right things, and it was very clear that He loved all people, and He wanted to spread kindness.
Jesus loved all people, and He still does, even bad people. And He did not condemn, but He granted redemption. Even when He said difficult things, He was still tender hearted, and His kindness showed through.
Some of my fondest memories are the times that I love going to Sunday school in my little church in Shintown. I loved Sunday mornings when the church bell would ring and we would all walk to church with my mom. I have many happy memories of our Sunday school teacher, holding up her Bible and telling us to always read it, we would memorize Bible verses and share them in a circle each week at the end of our lesson. I still attribute those days to knowing many versus yet today. One of those verses was , “ Be kind to one another, tender hearted , and forgiving one another”. I am thankful that someone cared about us enough to teach us that verse, because basic kindness, and being nice is one of the most important things we can teach our children.
In this fast-paced world, we live in, there’s a lot of emphasis, put on education, accomplishments, and earning as much as possible while we’re at it. We hear be the best you can be, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It would be great if we could put a little bit more emphasis on simply being kind to one another.
We saw that at work in Jesus’s life because He modeled kindness as He was motivated by compassion and love. It is Jesus acting in us and through us that enables our kindness. One of the most important things we can do each day, is to receive God’s kindness, and pass it on, or pay it forward.
Maybe we should all pray that same prayer that little girl prayed and ask God to change the hearts of those who don’t have His love. When Jesus came to earth in a lowly manger , He came to bring love to the world. Let us share that love and spread kindness wherever we go.
