Who is a christian? A christian is someone who follows the teachings of Christ. And what is the teaching of Christ? The teaching of Christ is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Love your neighbour as you love yourself"-(Matthew 22:37-39).
St. Paul with this in his heart said his letter to the Colossians in chapter 3 verse 12 to 14, "You are the people of God; he loved you and chose you for his own. So then you must clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you. And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity."
From this Paul's letter, I have lifted 8 virtues which include:
1. Kindness
2. Love
3. Gentleness
4. Tolerance
5. Patience
6. Compassion
7. Forgiveness
8. Humility
We shall be concentrating our energy in this article on one of them which is no other but kindness.
Kindness
Kindness according to the Oxford dictionary is "the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate". While biblically as written by Geneva College, kindness is being "selfless, compassionate and merciful". From these simple definitions, you will realize that kindness is more of the good you do to others.
Kindness and unkindness runs in the DNA of every man but it is all in your choose of the one you want to express, and the one you keep recessive because you can even learn "silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind,..."
On November 13 every year, the world celebrates World Kindness Day. Kindness is a global need as much as it is individually. Everybody knows virtually this fact and that's why Professor David W. Orr once said, " The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of every kind. It needs people who love well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we defined it".
Kindness should be a lifestyle not a seasonal attribute. Kindness is a seed. It grows from your heart, your mind and your soul. It grows into a tall tree that every birth wants to perch on. But for it to grow into that desired tree, you have to water everyday. This process of watering this seed is an everyday activity.
However, kindness is a virtue of showing love and "unconditional love flows through specific channels of respect, integrity, purpose, meaning, value, responsibility, forgiveness, kindness, and compassion- and these form the foundation of our new naturally ethnic lives"- Shift into Freedom: The Science and Practice of Open-Hearted Awareness by Loch Kelly. Irrespective of how you look at it, kindness "is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see"- Mark Twain.
Nobody is an island! Kindness is one of the bedrock of our survival as a race. Even animals know this. Without the love and care demonstrated by your parents during your infancy, you wouldn't have survived to see of this day. Even though nobody is indispensable but you need everybody and everybody needs you. Life is a wheel, remember.
Now more than ever before, the world needs kindness as much as she needs air. Henry James have it in his words, "Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind."
In your journey of imbibing this virtue, bear it in mind that people will always have their opinion about what you do and that's why Mother Teresa in her poem, Anyway echoed, " people are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway."
Let kindness be part of your life. Kindness is a medicine that heals both the doctor and the patient; the giver and the receiver.
Then lets see what the bible says about this virtue:
• Matthew 7:12(ESV)- "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them".
• Galatians 6:9(ESV)- "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So, then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone,..."
• Ephesians 4:32(ESV)- "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you".
• Micah 6:8(ESV)- "He has told you, o man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" So, I say to you, love to be kind.
• Hebrews 13:1-2(ESV)- "Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Abraham is a typical example of what kindness is and what it can do for you even when you don't expect it.
So, I say to you lets toil the path of kindness because in it lies happiness and optimal joy. Just like Dalai Lama XIV said and I retract, "My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness". This is a religion for everybody. Be you Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hinduist, Omanana person or even Afa child.
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