Today, Practice Kindness

From: The Word For Today - Bob Gass Ministries

1 Peter 1:5-7 "Make every effort to show… kindness. "

Have you noticed that the busier you get the less you seem to show kindness to others? That's because kindness is "the fruit of the Spirit," not a product of the flesh (Galatians 5:22). Kindness doesn't happen in a vacuum, or as the result of a good Sunday morning sermon. You have to practice it. You have to do what Peter says: "Make every effort to show… kindness."

Before William McKinley became President of the United States he was riding to his congressional office one morning on a tram. A sick woman got on and, unable to find a seat, clutched an overhead strap next to one of McKinley's political colleagues. Pathetically this colleague hid behind his newspaper to avoid offering her his seat. Immediately McKinley rose, gave her his seat and took her place in the aisle.

Years later when he was President this same colleague was recommended for the position of ambassador, but McKinley refused. He said, "If his kindness is of the quality he showed that morning on the tram, I fear what he might do representing us in a foreign land." The disappointed congressman never did learn why McKinley chose someone else for the job.

What good are tireless efforts fuelled by personal ambition, or a desire to serve that's rooted in a need to control? Face it; without kindness what good are all our titles, traditions, testimonies and theology? If you don't know the answer here it is: "If I had the gift of prophecy and knew all about… the future, knew everything about everything, but didn't love others, what good would it do?" (1 Corinthians 13:2).

So today, make up your mind to practice kindness!