February 19, 2010

When was the last time you got up in the darkness of the night and
discovered the hard edge of some piece of furniture with your shin?
Colliding with a hard edge is painful. It usually leaves bruises as a
reminder of the experience.

There are many people who are hard-edged in their interactions with
others. The hard lines in their personality make relationships painful
and often leave emotional bruises in the souls of people who collide
with them. They lack a key character trait called kindness.

The Bible highlights kindness as a quality every believer is responsible
to develop and demonstrate. Take a look at the instructions God gives
us about this characteristic:

"Love is patient, love is kind ... " - 1 Corinthians 13:4

"But the fruit of the Spirit is ... kindness ... " - Galatians 5:22

"Be kind and compassionate to one another ... " - Ephesians 4:32

"Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be
kind to each other and to everyone else." - 1 Thessalonians 5:15

"And the Lord's servant ... must be kind to everyone ... " - 2 Timothy
2:24

To be kind is to have a good nature; a warm and helpful disposition. It
is to be considerate of others. Kind folks are mild and gentle.

The concept of kindness is sometimes used to describe temperate,
pleasant weather - clement weather - as compared to inclement weather
that is harsh, bitter, dangerous and unpleasant.

To be kind is to be merciful to others in spirit and word. Kind people
are not "edgy" people. They have allowed the edges of their personality
to be softened and rounded.

When we are kind we are like God. One of the things the Holy Spirit
wants to form in each of us is kindness. But He cannot do this without
our cooperation. We have to choose to lose our edge. We must value
this quality and decide to demonstrate it in the way we speak and act
toward others.

Take the edge off!

Pastor Dale