Encouraging Word

Intro
Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with an encouraging word for your day. In the near future, I will be spending several weeks on the subject of Loving Like Jesus. Last year, we did 7 weeks of concentrated study on our own” Love Project”, which encouraged us to walk in love, and exhibit the 7 main characteristics of a loving person. So as a review and follow up, we are going to spend this week being encouraged and motivated to walk in love and demonstrate love as a way of life through kindness. Be encouraged today! We can make a lifelong impact on our world by loving others.

Monday
This week we will begin looking at the seven characteristics of a loving person. In a world where we are taught to look out for number #1, we are living in an opposite world when we begin to think about others first. This week we will be looking at Kindness as a characteristic of a loving person. A great definition of kindness is discovering the joy of helping others and the joy of meeting someone else’s need before your own, simply for the sake of relationship. A question we want to begin with is this: Would others classify me as a kind person? Do I look for ways to show kindness each day, or am I always looking out for number 1, and letting the chips fall where they may. Sometimes that answer is not clear cut, because if you are like most people, kindness is easier when you are not in a hurry, and when things in your life are good. We say that as Christians we are not moved by what we feel, but we generally are. If we didn’t sleep well, kindness is out the window. If we are in pain, or discomfort, or overstressed, kindness doesn’t come quite as easily. But kindness is a habit we can acquire, and have operate in our life whatever circumstances we are in. It comes along with being selfless. Selfishness centers everything on me. How I am feeling, how rushed I am, how others should treat me. We can begin asking those same questions about someone else. How are they feeling, are they rushed, can I treat them well, and help them in their day? Kindness really does begin with thinking about others more. It can start at home with those you live with. It can be a great avenue for your home life to positively change to be a more loving environment. Amazing what a little kindness can do.

Tuesday
Kindness is the first characteristic of a loving life that we are studying this week.
Kindness really is a great way to show God’s love to our world. It has great potential to change us from the inside as we begin to think about other’s care and comfort more than we do our own. Sometimes the biggest change we see is a change of attitude, and that is a great place to start. During this series, we are hoping to make love more obvious to the world around us that we are believers. Believers should be known specifically for one thing, and that is love. So as we talk about kindness this week, I see it as beginning to put love in action. We are not hearers only, we are doers of the Word! Love is an action, and definitely when we show kindness we are acting in a loving way. We live in a world with lots of injustice. We get to be the ones who start to turn the tide. Let’s not be the one who walks past an opportunity to show kindness. Begin right where you are, and start being observant to the world around you. Open up your eyes, and in the normal processes of life, you can begin demonstrating kindness by the little kind things you do, all the time. Your life will have a whole different feel when you begin to notice or recognize someone else’s needs. We will learn that kindness isn’t only a response to others being kind to us, but us proactively being kind to others. In fact, a great definition of kindness from Gary Chapman’s book Love as a Way of Life is this: kindness is discovering the joy of helping others and the joy of meeting someone else’s need before your own, simply for the sake of relationship. Will kindness have an impact on your relationship? You bet. Why not start showing kindness today?

Wednesday
When we look at all the characteristics of love, kindness rates high on the list. One great way to show kindness is through words. We can speak hope filled, positive, truthful and affirming words of love through kindness. Encouraging Words are my passion! How can your words bring hope? Sometimes just the simple words, it will all be ok, can bring a great measure of hope to someone who is in desperate circumstances. Kind words should be positive and uplifting. We know God turns negative situations around all the time. Our words can begin that process in someone’s life. Kind words are truthful. We are told in the Bible to speak the truth in love. It can be challenging, but we can speak truth in love. Kind words are affirming. I’m always encouraged and affirmed by words that uplift. We do need to put a guard on our mouth, we do need to listen to what we say and how we say it, and we do need to replace negative words with positive words. Being kind is all about seeing value and worth in each person. Kindness can be developed! You can break negative patterns and make changes just by being observant and taking time to think about what we say before it is said. So remember to speak those hope filled, positive, truthful and affirming words of kindness!

Thursday
Here is a good question to consider. How different would your relationships be if kindness was a quality of love that was practiced daily? I bet they would all improve! Bad Habits are the competitor to kindness. Bad habits can be things that we don’t do, like: leaving things out or not putting things away where they belong. What we say when we don’t take care of our own things is that we don’t care if we make more work for others. Often it is just laziness, and sometimes haste that keep us from being more thorough, but it makes things harder for someone else. Just consider the amount of work it takes someone at a restaurant to pick up what you may have dropped on the floor, to scoot your chair in, and to clean the table up. We think that since that is what they do for a job, we can leave a mess for them. That isn’t the kindest thing to do. We do need to consider kindness! Think about that at home too. When it comes to the simple things, show kindness by having good habits! Make it a good habit to take care of your own things. Do a little extra. Offer to help out. Be kinder than necessary! Good things happen when you show kindness….you usually get kindness in return.

Friday
Pay it forward was a popular movie several years back that had a great message. When you receive a kindness from someone, pass it on to someone else. Instead of paying you back, you’re paying it forward. Kindness generates kindness. Have you noticed how true that it? When you make a choice to show kindness, even if it is not reciprocated, it make some sort of impact. Sometimes it is as dramatic as shock and disbelief, but often it is just thankfulness. People are genuinely thankful when a kindness is shown to them. If you look back in your own life, I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere in your past you have a vivid memory of someone being kind to you. My dad received a Steinway Grand Piano in an inheritance from someone he had been kind to. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for my dad, in fact, he was one of the kindest men I’ve ever known. He was always thinking about the underdog, and he was an encourager by nature. The awesome inheritance came to my dad because he would take time to show kindness to a mentally disabled young man, and his mom was so grateful she put my dad’s name in her will. She payed it forward. Is there some way you can do the same this week? Has someone helped you, or given you something, or made an impact on your life through kindness? Find a way to pay it forward!

Saturday
Kindness is the first characteristic of a loving life that we are talking about this week.
I’m sure you’ve seen people who act like this at school. You be nice to me, and I’ll be nice to you. We are taught in Sunday School and Children’s Church to be kind to one another. Your parents probably tell you the same thing, about your sisters and brothers. Be nice! It is easier to be nice to someone if they are being nice to you, but love tells us to be nice either way! So can you begin practicing kindness? I think you can. I know you might think that some people are just kinder than others, or that they got some special kind of kindness data input that you didn’t receive, but that’s really not the case. It can be from their environment. If you are around people who think about and care about others, you will definitely have a greater tendency to be kind. But even if you are not, you can start the kindness project this week! Kindness bring a smile to your face not only when you receive it, but especially when you give it. I hope you begin looking for ways to show kindness around you. Here are some easy ideas. Give genuine compliments, smile at people, help around the house without being asked, give someone else the last cookie, make an outsider feel like an insider….the list could go on forever! So now it’s your turn. What are you gonna do to show kindness to someone today? When you show your love to others, it does come back to you. So go and sow some seeds of kindness, and see what comes back in return.

Sunday
I hope you are beginning to think proactively about being kind all the time. To make it really practical, here are some simple ideas, or ways for you to start showing kindness to those around you!
1. Take every opportunity to smile at people
2. Remember the elderly, the mentally or physically challenged have additional
hurdles in life….try to help make life easier for them through kindness
3. Let others in line ahead of you
4. Be kind in traffic!
5. Give compliments!
6. Hold the door for others
7. Pay for someone’s meal or drink in the coffee line or fast food restaurant
8. Tip well
9. Call, text or email people in your world who might need encouragement

Never underestimate how much impact kind words can have on someone’s life. Always be looking for ways to affirm and value those around you. It is all too easy to do the opposite. We look for things that are negative naturally. We have to train ourselves to look for the positive and to use our words to say the kind thing instead of what might have come to mind initially. There is the power of life and death in what we speak, and kind words in any situation, have the power to change situations for the better.