Colossians 3:12-13

Since God chose you to be the Holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. -Colossians 3:12-13

Interestingly enough for me, I hear very few exhortations to be kind and gentle. If you’re a believer, you’re likely to hear, often: be generous, evangelize more, stand up for your faith, prayer more. But be kind and gentle? I think that may have gotten lost along the way.

There are no worldly benefits to kindness. It makes you easy to take advantage of. If you treat people with gentleness you will be burned and hurt by their reaction. But it’s there in the Bible so we do it. It’s how our master worked and lived.

In all honesty, the biggest thing that keeps me from being kinder is my schedule. It’s so packed that I often don’t have time to stop for the person in front of me or for really finding out how the people around me are doing. It’s hard to be kind when you’re emotionally torqued. I need to slow down more, daily, and let me roots go deep into Jesus.