LAWTON CHURCH OF GOD, LAWTON OKLAHOMA

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CHAPTER 4

KINDNESS

MORE hearts pine away in secret anguish for the want of kindness from those who should be their comforters than for any other calamity in life.

A word of kindness is a seed which, even though dropped by chance, springs up a flower.

A kind word and a pleasant tone of voice are gifts easy to give; be liberal with them. They are worth more than money.

Kindness makes sunshine wherever it goes.

Write your name by kindness, love, and mercy on the hearts of the people you come in contact with year by year, and you will never be forgotten. There is nothing like kindness.

It is impossible to resist continued kindness. In a moment of petulance or passion we may manifest coldness despite the exhibition of good will on the part of a new acquaintance; but let him persist, let him continue to prove himself really benevolent of heart, generously and kindly disposed, and we will find our stubborn nature giving way, even unconsciously to ourselves.

If this be the result of kindness among comparative strangers, how much more certain will be the delightful result at home within the charmed circle of friends and relatives. Home courtesies, home enjoyments, home affections, can not be too carefully or steadily cultivated. Cultivate the home virtues, the household beauties of existence. Endeavor to make the little circle of domestic life a cheerful, an intelligent, a kindly, and a happy one. Our friends we must prize and appreciate while we are with them. It is a shame not to know how much we love our friends and how good they are till they die.

We must seize with joy all our opportunities; our duties we must perform with pleasure; our sacrifices we must make cheerfully, knowing that he who sacrifices most is noblest. We must forgive with an understanding of the glory of forgiveness, and use the blessings we have, realizing how great are small blessings when properly accepted.

Hard words are like hail-stones in summer, beating down and destroying what they would nourish if they were melted into drops. Kindness is stored away in the heart like rose-leaves in a drawer, to sweeten every object around them. Little drops of rain brighten the meadows, and little acts of kindness brighten the world. We can conceive of nothing more attractive than the heart when filled with the spirit of kindness. Certainly nothing so embellishes human nature as the practise of this virtue. A sentiment so excellent ought to be emblazoned upon every thought and act of our life.

The principle of kindness underlies the whole theory of Christianity, and in no other person do we find it more happily exemplified than in the life of our Savior, who while on earth went about doing good. And how true it is that

“A little word in kindness spoken,

A motion, or a tear,

Has often healed the heart that’s broken,

And made a friend sincere!”