Try Intentional Acts of Kindness

Several weeks ago, a University of Georgia student got into a dispute with two other customers over who was next in line at an Athens restaurant. The two customers were in a crowded line as they waited to order breakfast. When a cashier opened a new line and they stepped to the front, another customer nearby became angry. So she waited for the pair in the parking lot, and as the mother and daughter left the restaurant, the student pulled out of her parking place and struck both of them with the passenger side of her car. She was arrested later for allegedly running into the two customers.

Whatever happened to kindness? I wasn’t run down, but last Friday I ventured into a well-known fast food place. I didn’t realize that it was customer appreciation day, which explained why the restaurant was so crowded. The friend I was riding with stopped to let me out so I could go inside to order, and the driver behind us started sounding her horn impatiently. As I walked across in front of her, I smiled and mouthed the words, “patience, patience, patience.”

We need to be kind. On purpose. There’s an organization called the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation that promotes kindness. There’s even a National Kindness Day observed annually.

I’m all for RAK’s, but what about intentional acts of kindness as a daily choice? Author Audray Landrum said, “Kindness is for all times in all situations, not just when it suits you.”

We need to practice kindness with a purpose. For the follower of Christ, we are kind because the Bible says to “Be kind to one another,” (Eph. 4:32). We also understand that, as Paul wrote in I Cor. 13:4, “Love is patient and kind.” Someone said that kindness is love with its work clothes on.

Ultimately, we practice kindness because doing so honors Christ and we want to bring him glory.

Even the smallest demonstration of kindness carries great impact. Aesop said, “No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.” Barbara DeAngelis said, “Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference.”

I read about a pastor and wife who went to a movie. As they were sitting in the theatre before the movie started, this girl next to the wife leaned over and said, “I know this sounds weird, but I don’t have any cash, and my friend and I want something from the concession stand. Could I write you a check for $10 and ask you to cash it for me now?”

They had never seen this girl before. The pastor’s first thought was, “Is this some sort of scam? Am I getting ripped off?” He shared he started to ask for three types of ID.

But before he could say anything, his wife reached into her purse and said, “Sure, here’s $10, is that all you need?” The girl wrote the check. It was dark. You couldn’t see if she signed it, or put any amount on it. The wife just stuffed it in her purse.

The pastor was still skeptical when the stranger leaned over and said, “Aren’t you the pastor of the local Baptist church? I heard you preach on kindness recently.”

The reluctant pastor then said, “Yes, I am . . . are you sure $10 is enough?” His wife was practicing what he was preaching, being generous and kind with no expectation of return.

A little boy was selling pencils on a busy sidewalk in Chicago. On the sidewalk was his can of pencils by a sign reading, “Pencils, 50 cents.” Most people were ignoring him, but one hurried pedestrian accidentally kicked over his can while racing for a taxi. The pencils went rolling across the sidewalk. People were stepping on them and kicking them as they rushed along.

The little boy was on his hands and knees trying to collect them. He was in a panic. Suddenly, he saw a well-dressed businessman on his knees helping him gather the scattered pencils. They rescued most of them, but they were ruined. The man asked the boy how many pencils he had left before they were damaged, and he said, “forty.”

The man said, “I’ll buy all forty,” and he pulled two $20 bills from his wallet and gave them to the boy. The man grabbed the pencils and left the little boy standing there in amazement holding two $20’s.

He shouted to the man, “Hey, mister, Are you God?”

Smiling, the man replied, “No, son, I’m just one of His children trying to practice a little kindness.”