Building a Legacy of Kindness
Has kindness gone out of fashion like a polyester leisure suit?
I cringe lately when I hear politicians hurling insults at each other. How do parents, trying to raise kind children, explain these random acts of bullying with words?
Part of me longs to return to the days of civility Jane Austen wrote about in her novels. People weighed their words carefully before they spoke for fear of overstepping bounds of propriety. Imagine that in our age of think-it-one-minute-and-spill-it-to-the-world-on-social-media the next?!
Several months ago I wrote about my great-uncle, who lived a life of remarkable kindness:http://aftonrorvik.com/blog/2014/05/26/friendship-ingredients-kindness/. I will always remember pulling into a parking lot in his town and telling the parking lot attendant that we were there to attend the funeral of Allen Raymond. She responded immediately, “He was the nicest man I have ever met.”
A legacy of kindness.
And I just read this in a monthly column from the Door County Civility Project, which seeks to promote a more civil dialogue (doorcountycivilityproject.org http://ow.ly/YSAwj).
At a grocery store in our state, the manager in addressing the entire staff asked that each staff member reach out a little more with kindness. A young man who was a bagger, an individual with special needs, especially took this to heart. He wanted to do something, but he was not sure there really was anything that he could do.
His family in their own act of kindness gave him encouragement. He decided that he wanted to give each person a thought for the day. Each day after work he would work on his message. Once completed his family would type them on the computer and have copies for him to take the next day.
Several weeks later, the manager noticed that his line was almost as long as the length of the store. He went to help people to other lines. None wanted to move. They wanted to stay in that line to get his message. At another time one customer told the manager that she used to shop one a week, but now she comes each day for that message.
Be kind to each other and so many more positives will happen.
Kindness matters. It always will. No matter what the politicians say or do.
Never let loyalty and kindness leave you!
Tie them around your neck as a reminder.
Write them deep within your heart.
Then you will find favor with both God and people,
and you will earn a good reputation.
Proverbs 3:3-4, NLT
Each day we build a legacy, conversation by conversation, decision by decision, social media post by social media post. Let us build a legacy of kindness.
