Today is National World Kindness Day.

Remember a time when someone acted kindly toward you? Maybe someone stopped to help you pick up your books when you dropped them in the crowded school hallway. Or maybe someone noticed you sitting by yourself in the lunchroom and sat with you. Or maybe someone gave you a cold drink of water while you were outside on a hot summer day.

We rarely forget such acts. A little kindness can get us through a bad day, or help us to finish a task. Kindness by its very definition is doing something that pleases others—not ourselves. When we receive an act of kindness, it means that someone is more concerned about us than they are themselves. Kindness is treating others with love and respect. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?

What’s even more amazing is that God acts with kindness toward every one of us. Think about it. What have you done today that makes you deserving of God’s kindness? The answer is probably nothing. On a daily basis none of us is deserving of God’s unending kindness.

How does God treat us kindly? First, by sending his Son Jesus to die for us and to take the punishment we deserve for our sins. Second, by giving us time to recognize this fact and to turn from our sinful ways. God is infinitely patient, infinitely loving, and infinitely kind.

So next time you have an opportunity to show a little kindness to someone else, remember God’s kindness toward you. And take the time to stop and lend a hand, listen to a friend, or befriend someone who is looking a bit down.

Kindness goes a long way.

Don’t you realize how kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Or don’t you care? Can’t you see how kind he has been in giving you time to turn from your sin? (Romans 2:4).

To Do

Go ahead. Show God’s kindness to someone by conducting your own “kindness raid.” Do something nice for someone else, but don’t tell!

Also on this day

1789—Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except for death and taxes.”

1805—Johann George Lehner, a Viennese butcher, invented the frankfurter.

1907—The first helicopter flight lasted 20 seconds and took place just a foot off the ground.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.