{"id":15539,"date":"2013-11-05T00:01:22","date_gmt":"2013-11-05T06:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=15539"},"modified":"2013-11-04T17:57:16","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T23:57:16","slug":"chapter-2-love-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/11\/05\/chapter-2-love-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"16 Day Love Challenge – Chapter 2: Love is Kind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Luke<\/a><\/p>\n

Kindness<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 Just seeing the word makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 It makes you smile.\u00a0 If I asked you to share a time when someone was kind to you, what comes to your mind?\u00a0 We\u00a0read at the beginning of Chapter 2 that \u201cKindness can be described as having the qualities of being friendly, generous and considerate.\u201d\u00a0 But is it really that<\/em> easy or simple?\u00a0 Let\u2019s not dismiss this attribute as elementary, sisters.\u00a0 We are challenged at the end of the chapter to ask God to show you where you have been unkind.\u00a0 If you will, take a moment now and ask God; \u201cLord, am I truly<\/i> and consistently<\/i> kind?\u00a0 To everyone<\/b><\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

When we look in the Bible, there are MANY directives given to be kind or show kindness. \u00a0We see in Galatians 5:22 that it is one of the many fruits of the Spirit<\/em>—evidences that we are being led by the Holy Spirit in our daily lives.\u00a0 In 2 Peter 1: 5-9<\/a> we see that kindness is one of several qualities that will help us to be more effective and productive in our knowledge of Jesus.\u00a0 In Ephesians 2:6 and 7 we are told that \u201cGod raised us up with Christ\u201d in order to show us the \u201cincomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.\u201d We are directed to be kind to women, children, the poor and the oppressed, so there must be more to kindness than just being \u201cfriendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I looked up the word, “kindness” again, I saw the same definition—friendly, generous, considerate.\u00a0 Then I looked up the word \u201ckind.<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0 The fourth definition was \u201cforbearing or tolerant.\u201d\u00a0 Here<\/i> we go…\u00a0here is where we are shown the difference\u00a0between just opening the door for someone and truly taking on the nature of God.\u00a0 In Luke 6: 32-35 we are shown a challenging passage that, like our passage in 1 Corinthians 13, exemplifies the true actions of a loving person.<\/p>\n

\n

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?
\nEven \u2018sinners\u2019 love those who love them.
\nAnd if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you?
\nEven \u2018sinners\u2019 do that.
\nAnd if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?
\nEven \u2018sinners\u2019 lend to \u2018sinners\u2019, expecting to be repaid in full.
\nBut love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them <\/i>
\nwithout expecting to get anything back. <\/i>
\nThen your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, <\/i>
\nbecause He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(NIV)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In preparation for this blog, I started the 16 Day Love Challenge<\/em> a little early. Even as I was reading about patience (yep, I need to work on that\u2026), God was convicting me about \u201ckindness.\u201d\u00a0 He showed me two areas that needed improvement—how I spoke to my husband and how I dealt with customers at work.\u00a0 Now don\u2019t get me wrong, I try very hard to be a submissive, loving, supportive wife (AND a godly, cheerful, positive person at my job!).\u00a0 But with my husband, sometimes I can be\u2026critical. <Ugh. Anyone out there with me?> \u00a0 There are times when, instead of seeing and recognizing what my husband does right, I pick out the small detail that is not to my liking and make some kind of comment about it.\u00a0 Often, after it comes out of my mouth, I think \u201cWhy did I say that???\u201d\u00a0 Well, for the past several days I have been HIGHLY aware of what comes out of my mouth, because those little, tiny, nitpicky things have a tendency to wear someone down. \u00a0 (And you know what, sisters?\u00a0 We reap what we sow. \u00a0Do you have relationships that have a problem with criticism?\u00a0 Do an honest check to see what you are sowing into it\u2026.) Not only have I tried to bring every thought under submission to God, but I\u2019ve been happier…as has my husband.\u00a0\u00a0 I work part-time at a cute shop in town that sells cupcakes, and it can get rather busy.\u00a0\u00a0 I am the only person that works during my shift, and so a line to the door of often impatient customers can raise the stress level a bit.\u00a0 There are many times when a customer wants to take a LONG time figuring out what just the right cupcake will be, and wants a description of the ingredients\/frosting\/sprinkles, etc. for every cupcake<\/i>!\u00a0 (Did I mention the line of customers behind him\/her is to the door?\u00a0 And they are being audibly<\/b> impatient?)\u00a0 Needless to say, I have a tendency to then become impatient and try to rush the customer along.\u00a0 Is that showing love to that person?\u00a0 NO.\u00a0 I am being neither patient nor<\/i> kind<\/strong> to those types of customers.\u00a0\u00a0 So I prayed to be more loving (patient and kind) to the difficult customers that came in the door.\u00a0 It made for a much less stressful shift!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s accept the challenge to exemplify \u201ckindness\u201d today \u2013 not only to those that are kind to us, but especially<\/i> to those that are not!\u00a0 If we do, our \u201creward will be great!\u201d (Luke 6:35)<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s pray<\/strong><\/span>:<\/p>\n

Kind father, THANK YOU for loving me!\u00a0 Thank You for your blessings, and for every good and perfect gift that comes from You, especially for Your Son Jesus, and the hope we have through Him!\u00a0 Show me where I can be kinder to those around me, and help me today to show the true love of Jesus in my actions.\u00a0 Help me to give kindness as generously as You have given it to me.\u00a0 In the name of Your Son we pray.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kindness.\u00a0 Just seeing the word makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 It makes you smile.\u00a0 If I asked you to share a time when someone was kind to you, what comes to your mind?\u00a0 We\u00a0read at the beginning of Chapter 2 that \u201cKindness can be described as having the qualities of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":15596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[4349,4346,4353,4347,4352,4360,2612,4354,4357,4350,3565,4351,436,523,554,4345,2260,620,4359,4358,724,4356,744,4355,4348,3474,1141,2782],"class_list":["post-15539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-1-corinthians-134-8-1-corinthians-134","tag-16-day-love-challenge","tag-2-peter-15-9","tag-cherie-zack","tag-considerate","tag-criticism","tag-cupcakes","tag-ephesians-26-7","tag-forbearing","tag-friendly","tag-galatians-522","tag-generous","tag-god","tag-husband","tag-jesus","tag-kind","tag-kindness","tag-love","tag-love-your-enemies","tag-luke-632-35","tag-online-bible-study","tag-oppressed","tag-patience","tag-poor","tag-rebecca-le-compte","tag-robin-caddell","tag-womens-online-bible-study","tag-womens-study","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Luke-6-35.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-42D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15539"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15603,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15539\/revisions\/15603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}