Day 2: Love is Kind

Love is Kind

Be kind to one another,tender-hearted,forgiving each other,

just as God in Christ also has forgiven you---Ephesians 4:32

Kindness is love in action. Kindness is how love acts to maximize a positive circumstance. Patience avoids a problem; kindness creates a blessing. One is preventive, the other proactive. Love makes you kind. And kindness makes you likable. When you're kind, people want to be around you. They see you as being good to them and good for them.The Bible keys in on the importance of kindness:"Do not let kindness and truth leave you;bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man"(Proverbs 3:3-4). Kind people simply find favor wherever they go. But "kindness" can feel a little generic when you try defining it, much less living it. So now we can break kindness into four core ingredients:

Gentleness. When you're operating from kindness, you're careful how you treat other people, never being unnecessarily harsh. You're sensitive. Tender. Even if you need to say hard things, you'll bend over backwards to make you rebuke or challenge as easy to hear as possible. You speak the truth in love.

Helpfulness. Being kind means you meet the needs of the moment. If it's work you get busy, and if its a listening ear, you give it.

Willingness. Kindness inspires you to be agreeable. A kind person ends thousands of potential arguments by the willingness to listen first rather than demand his or her way.

Initiative. Kindness thinks ahead, then takes the first step. When acting from kindness, you see the need, then make your move. First.

It is difficult to demonstrate love when you feel little to no motivation. But love in its truest sense is not based on feelings. Rather, love determines to show thoughtful actions even when there seems to be no reward. You will never learn to love until you learn to demonstrate kindness.

Today's Dare

IN ADDITION TO SAYING NOTHING NEGATIVE TO YOUR FRIEND AGAIN TODAY,

DO AT LEAST ONE UNEXPECTED GESTURE AS AN ACT OF KINDNESS.