Being Kind

I like to think of myself as a kind person. There is something about having a cheerful attitude and performing kind gestures that make me internally a happy person. Whether it is signing off on an email wishing the person a blessed day or a brief telephone call while paying a bill, being kind just makes everything better. However, sometimes my kindness gets ignored or just blatantly shot down. It takes a lot for me to dismiss the other person’s attitude, and I must remind myself that at least I was kind and not to let their unkindness bring me down.

I wasn’t always this way. Reading the Bible more and more, which I never did before two years ago, has changed how I think and perceive things. I was never a people person before then. If I got treated with bitterness, you bet that is how I treated them back. I felt like I had a big blob of rot inside me, and I could not understand why I was so miserable. The Bible changed all that for me, not right away, but it slowly morphed that blob of rot into something more beautiful.

Throughout the past year or so, I have made a lot of different changes to my life. I attempt to be more conscious of the words that come out of my mouth, the thoughts that run through my head, and what people I spend time with during my downtime. In other words—out with the negative and in with the positive.

These things, however, do not come naturally; it’s something that I frequently remind myself to do or not to do. You never know, a few kind words, a simple smile, or a wave could be that light someone else needs to brighten their day. It does not cost anything, and who knows, you might just trigger a domino effect of kindness.