The other day, my daughter and I were walking by the river when we were stopped by an elderly couple. The man was pointing to a turtle on a log and asked us if we could see it. We stopped, looked, and said yes, we could. For the next minute or two, he pointed out other animals he could see, and the woman told us he loves wildlife. After a few minutes of standing with them, I told them thank you for stopping us to point out the animals and the woman said, “and thank you for not getting mad at us”.
As we walked away, my heart hurt a little that she had said that. I thought, why would someone get mad at a sweet couple for wanting to point out animals. Then, I was reminded of my own unkindness recently and remembered how quickly we can become lost in our own world and act rudely toward others. A few weeks ago, I had been driving in an unfamiliar city and the air conditioning in my car wasn’t working great. By the time I stopped at the destination, I was anxious from the traffic, and I was hot. My phone rang and it was an unfamiliar number, my screen stated “possible spam”. I answered and the person said, “Who am I speaking to?”. I immediately assumed it was a scammer, snapped at them saying they should know who it was if they were calling me, and hung up.
A few days later, as I remembered my unkindness, I felt bad. Yes, it might have been a scammer, but maybe it wasn’t. Either way, the fact that I was anxious and hot did not give me the right to be unkind. I actually tried to call the number back to apologize but was unable to do so as a recording said it screened calls and my call wasn’t accepted. Although my intuition that it was a scammer may have been correct, at least I know I tried to apologize for my unkindness if it had not been someone trying to scam me.
There are many stories of kindness highlighted in the bible. The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37 NIV), Jesus feeding 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21), Pharoh’s daughter finding Moses (Exodus 2:5-10) and the story of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz (the book of Ruth), to name a few. When Jesus fed the 5,000, this was just after he received the news that his beloved cousin, John, had been killed. Although Jesus had initially retreated to be by himself, he wasn’t rude and unkind to others when crowds of people began to follow him. Instead of snapping at them, he showed compassion by healing the sick and feeding everyone (Matthew 14).
We can strive to be more like Jesus each day, showing kindness and compassion toward others, rather than making assumptions and being unkind. During this past school year, at the end of the day, my kids would share a high and low from the day as well as one way they were like Jesus to others. This could be as simple as holding the door for the person behind them or praying for someone they recognized seemed sad at school. Unfortunately, we have gotten out of this habit, but writing this is a good reminder to get back into the practice of talking daily about ways we can be like Jesus to others.
While writing this, I am reminded of the song Less Like Me by Zach Williams. If you have a minute, look it up on YouTube and listen to it. My favorite part of the song is:
A little more like mercy, a little more like grace
A little more like kindness, goodness, love and faith
A little more like patience, a little more like peace
A little more like Jesus, a little less like me
I encourage you to end each day by asking yourself “How was I like Jesus to someone today?” As we are just beginning the second half of 2024, maybe you could write down your act of kindness each day and on New Year’s Eve, you can recap your acts of kindness from the second half of the year. You never know the impact even the smallest act of kindness might have.
As we move forward toward focusing on kindness, I want to end in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that each day I can find ways to be like Jesus, through my actions, thoughts, and words. I pray I find compassion and calm in the moments I would have otherwise overreacted in a rude or unkind way. Please guide me to be better each day, to live my life in a way that glorifies you. In Jesus name, Amen.
Zach Williams, Less Like Me released October 2019 track 2 on Rescue Story, Essential Records, digital download and audio CD
Scriptures marked (NIV) taken from the Holy Bible, New International
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