How Kind!

KINDNESS-EVEN A SMALL ACT OF KINDNESS-IS GOOD.

Bible Reading of the Day: Read 1 Thessalonians 5:15-24.

Verse of the Day: “Always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else” (1 Thessalonians 5:15, NIV).

Dean’s dad steered the car into the parking space at the Mega Mall, turned the engine off, and opened his door. By the time Dad did all that, Dean was already out of the car.

“Wait a minute, Dean,” Dad said. “Get back in the car for a second.”

Dean did what his dad said but asked, “Why?” as he climbed back in the car.

“Shut your door, please,” Dad said. He started the car again and Dean shut his door. “I did a pretty bad job of parking,” Dad explained. “I realized when I opened my door that I was taking up two parking spaces.”

“So?” Dean responded.

Dad backed up and parked the car again, this time centering it carefully between the yellow lines that marked each parking space. “Well, Son,” he said, “I parked in the closest space I could find, and there was another space right next to it. If I took two spaces, that means that someone else would have to walk farther—maybe much farther-to get to the mall.”

“Well, yeah,” Dean said. “People do that all the time.”

“I know, but once I noticed what I’d done, don’t you think it would have been unkind to make someone walk farther just because I did a poor job of parking?”

Dean shrugged. “But you’d never know who had to walk farther.”

They got out of the car again and started walking to the mall.

“The fact that I don’t know a person doesn’t give me the right to be unkind,” Dad continued.

“I guess you’re right,” Dean said. “But it seems like such a small thing.” “It is,” Dad said. “But the difference between kindness and unkindness is often in the small things.”

“I get what you’re saying,” Dean said. “It’s like this-” He jogged a few steps ahead of his father and opened the door to the mall. He made a grand sweeping gesture with his left hand while holding the door open with his right.

“Why, thank you, Dean,” Dad said. “How kind of you!”

Dean nodded grandly as he followed his dad into the mall. “I thought so too,” he

said.

TO DO: Be alert for an opportunity to show a small act of kindness to someone in the next twenty-four hours. Be prepared to report your act to your family tomorrow.

TO PRAY: “Lord, we want to be kind and loving. Show us the opportunities we have for doing so this week.”