The Kindness Challenge

Ever feel like there is no hope for a relationship you are in – whether it’s with a spouse, child, friend, mentor, co-worker?

Enter the Kindness Challenge.

I started a new book this week called “The Kindness Challenge, Thirty Days to Improve any Relationship” by Shaunti Feldhahn.  In it, some ladies share how Shaunti encouraged some ladies to step outside of their frustration over their failing marriages, and asked them to look at their spouse with new glasses – glasses of kindness. Who would have ever thought that doing small, maybe even insignificant kind things for their spouse (whether they felt like it or not) would serve to save their marriages, and give them fulfilling relationships with them.

When you first think about kindness, it looks like you are simply doing something small for someone else to make them feel good, like: opening a door, buying their coffee, or giving a compliment.  But as you really dig into it, kindness is something much, much deeper, raw, and alluring.

In Romans 2:4 it says that, “the kindness of God leads you to repentance.”  And in Galatians 5:22 it talks about Kindness being a fruit of the Spirit, meaning it’s an automatic thing that comes out of you when we spend time with Him on a regular basis.

So the idea of being kind started with God!  It was because of His kindness extended toward us in the person of Jesus Christ, that we are met with a ton of Grace instead of judgment, that we are given wisdom when we most definitely deserve scorn, and when He lifts us up and uses us to share about His goodness in this world instead of leaving us to sit in a puddle of shame.

In His kindness, God knew that we were going to be broken, and without hope of ever being made whole, and he had compassion on us even before we knew what we needed it or asked for it.. That’s kindness—the ability to recognize the needs of others and take steps to meet those needs. Kindness is understanding. Kindness is compassion in action.

You are loved!