“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” [Galatians 5:22-23 NLT]
We experienced such kindness on this trip. Our children took such good care of us. Our son and grandson graciously helped us when we needed to go up a set of stairs to the restrooms or across the uneven ground we found at the graduation.
Too often we think Kindness involves big acts, such as buying a car for an employee who bikes miles to work. More often kindness is a small gesture of thoughtfulness. It is something that should flow through our lives every day and touch everyone.
The small acts of Kindness we experienced over those five days reminded me of a time after we moved from California to Boise. It was just Bob and me; we had a 3-bedroom rental. One spare bedroom we set up as an office and the other as a guest room.
The church needed to provide housing for missionaries who were coming to town, and we volunteered. When I set up the guest room, I tried to think of things that I would want to have if I was visiting. I added extra pillows and blankets, lotions, extra towels in the bath, etc.
After the first night, the woman came to me and thanked me (in tears) – for the extra pillows. She said so often the places they stayed didn’t have extras. She either had to ask or do without.
Kindness should be the atmosphere we walk in, shared with all we encounter.
