Kindness Part 2

So yesterday, we figured out that by being selfless, we're being kind.

According to Wikipedia, Kindness is a Knightly Virtue. If you know me at all, then you know that I'm all about Medieval times. (I'm fairly certain that I'm actually from Medieval Times...) Anyway, the Knightly Virtues are somewhat like the Fruit of the Spirit. They were qualities that I knight possessed that they tried to live out in their daily lives. I can tell you that if I HAD lived in Medieval Times, I would've been saved out of a tower by a knight and we would've lived happily ever after(shut up. I know that the Dark Ages were not like that).

Think about it. Kindness is something that you have to learn. If we're being honest here, people are not born kind. Another definition of being kind is being childlike. Do you remember the story when Jesus told His disciples to "let the little children come to Him"? ((Matthew 19:14)) Jesus said that the Kingdom of God belonged to people like the little children. The KINGDOM OF GOD!

Job 6:14 says that "He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty". Whenever it talks about the "fear of the Lord" in the Bible, it doesn't mean being scared of Him. It means "reverential trust". (Yes, I did take that directly out of "Fun in the Son", thank you very much Seth Hamrick. :) ) So you're forsaking the trust of the Almighty when you refuse to extend kindness to people. Dude. FORSAKING IT. That means leaving it behind and never looking back. Holy cow, guys. I don't think that being unkind to someone is worth forsaking the person who extended the ultimate kindness to me. He gave His Only Son to die for the stupid things that I have done, am doing and will do, FOREVER.

Now, when you see that, it isn't that hard to extend God's kindness to people.

But it is. Because we have this feeling called "pride" and it happens to take over when we see someone in need, we feel like we're better. It really is true the you should respect the Golden Rule. ((Luke 6:31)) It is really, really hard to do that when people have been ridiculously stupid to you. You want to (honestly) punch them in the face and make them hurt just as bad. That's not what Jesus did when the guards were beating Him, and spitting on Him on the way to Calvary. He did it for ALL OF US, so that alone should be enough incentive to be kind.

Guys, let me tell you. Writing these blogs about love is really testing me. In order to understand what real patience, and real kindness is(so far), I'm getting smacked with a whole lotta junk that tests both my patience and my kindness. Because whenever I feel like I'm about to blow up at someone I hear God saying, "Rina...be patient. I am patient with you." Whenever I'm about to make a sarcastic comment that could hurt someone's feelings, I hear God saying, "Rina...Remember what I did for you? Be kind because I am." It's a hard lesson to learn, I kid you not.

Tomorrow we start on jealousy. That should be interesting...