Why I Have A Deep Appreciation for Kind People

Kind People

My mother told me many times that ”kindness doesn’t cost anything” but doesn’t it feel like sometimes on our daily walk through life that kindness isn’t at the top of everyone’s priority list? We live in a day and time when we have a zillion distractions. Like a bowling ball rolling down a steep hill, life just keeps picking up speed. Have we replaced kindness with indifference? Or worse yet, do some folks just not see the value in being kind?

There are times when being nice to someone can be a challenge. Say you are driving down the road and minding your own business when someone pulls out in front of you and you have to slam on the brakes….how do you react? You have every right to be frustrated but what if the person who almost caused you to wreck had just left their sick child with someone because they couldn’t afford to miss work and their child held onto their leg, begging them not to go? Or maybe they had been to the funeral of a friend or loved one. Or maybe they had just gotten bad news from their doctor. Maybe they are just a bad driver and don’t care….but you never know.

Life can be, and is for many, unbelievably hard. Who among us has not made a mistake while driving? Does blowing a car horn and shouting obscenities really change anything or do any good?

The last two years have brought some tough times for my family and for so many other families across America. Covid came into our world and nothing has been the same. I have spent way too much time in hospitals and I can tell you that without a doubt, kindness matters.

Your words. Your smile. Your hug. They may change a terrible, awful, no good day into one that is bearable.

There is a man at my church who leads prayer sometimes and he always includes this statement, ”Lord, help us to be kind to every person we meet because we are all fighting battles that others may not know about.” I always give that phrase a big “Amen.”

Good Examples

My grandmother and mother were both examples of being kind to others, even strangers. I remember after my mom died that a lady I had never met stopped me at the grocery and said, ”Someone told me you were Shirley Bell’s daughter and i just wanted you to know she was one of the kindest people i ever met.” She went on to tell me about moving to our community and how she didn’t know anyone. Mom made her homemade chocolate chip cookies and took them to her. It had been over 20 years since Mom had showed up at her door with cookies, but she still remembered.

Grandma Layne would have had a PhD in kindness, if there was such a thing. I never, ever heard her say anything bad about anyone or do anything remotely unkind.

Mom and Grandma left me big shoes to fill.

Giving and Receiving

I appreciate kind people and I have been the beneficiary of so much goodness that I will never be able to repay it all and the kindness of others has taught me so much. It reinforced Mom’s words about kindness not costing anything and the Bible’s teaching that it is truly more blessed to give than to receive.

So friends, be kind to one another people, even when it’s hard and they aren’t being nice to you. Like the guy at my church says in his prayers, “You just never know what someone else is going through.”