Can you imagine a world where everybody was kind to one another?  Now for me growing up, that wasn’t a common word that I heard in the vocabulary of others.  Every once in a while I would hear somebody say it but didn’t know the true meaning of kindness.  So if you are anything like me good Ol’ Webster and his definitions will be a lot of help in understanding this.

kind: (adj) having or showing a gentle nature and a desire to help others: wanting and liking to do good things and to bring happiness to others

The one word that really stands out in that definition is OTHERS.  In this series of what true love is, the second characteristic in 1 Corinthians 13:4 is kindness.  So when we love others by being kind to them, we are putting their deepest needs first.  According to Webster, how we do that is by having a gentle nature and helping them in any way we can.  Not only that but by doing good things so they can be happy.  Again, OTHERS FIRST.

Now this is easy to say; be kind to others, right?  But the tricky part is being kind in those times, that kindness is the last thing on your mind.  When something doesn’t go your way, and you just want yell at somebody, we are called to love them.  When someone messes up your life, we are called to be kind.  To me, I believe that patience and kindness go together.  When you can sit back and look at the bigger picture, being patient with them, it’s easier to be kind seeing outside your narrow-minded circumstance.

So again, when we say we love somebody, that means that we are to be kind to them in a gentle nature and to put them first.  If we don’t apply this to our life, we lack love.  Let’s all take a deep look at our lives and see if we are full of kindness or if we are all about ourselves.  If you are all about yourself, it’s time to look back to the Cross and see what our ultimate example of perfect kindness is.  It is Jesus, being kind to those that nobody wanted around; to the sick, the poor, and the hurting.  Kindness required a sacrifice of denying oneself and putting others first.

A world of love is a world of kindness!