Day 20: Kindness...What A Novel Idea

They say that everyone will get their 15 minutes of fame. In today's media, it seems that so many people are getting more than their fair 15 though they seem to be doing nothing noteworthy. Do you know who I'm talking about? I'm talking about the lovely men and women (and now toddlers) of reality television. Now let me preface this by admitting that I'm a bit of a reality junkie and actually watch many shows. However, I do have a line. You see there are some shows where the people getting all the air-time and exposure are simply a hot mess. They do everything except honor God and manage to get paid to do it.

But as I began to meditate on the life of a reality star, I realized that many of them are here today and gone tomorrow. You see, they can't seem to sustain. They have no staying power--a fact that, in part, could probably be attributed to a simple lack of one character ingredient, lovingkindness. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 20:28 that "Mercy and truth preserve the king, And by lovingkindness he upholds his throne." So many of us are looking for that staying power and can't seem to get it. We try one thing and it seems to fizzle. We try another and just can't get things to flow for us. Our fuses seem to get shorter and shorter as the trials in our lives seem to get longer and longer.

What we know is that as Christians we are called to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) and kindness is a part thereof. And while we watch those who are the most negative or least benevolent in our lives get this or that earthly reward, what we can rest in is that our eternal reward is much greater and that our ultimate staying power far exceeds theirs.As we are tested in life, it is up to us to decide to make the wise decision to choose kindness over being rushed or rude. It is up to us to look beyond our schedules and schemes to find God's ultimate plan for our continued success. It's so simple (and certainly not a novel idea) that I'm almost ashamed to write about this but I feel as though someone out there needs a reminder about the extreme power of kindness.

Be encouraged as those tests come think on that old saying, "you catch more bees with honey," and make kindness a priority in your walk.

Blessings,
MinD