by Shannon Steuerwald

I had the opportunity to speak at a mother/daughter luncheon recently, and the theme was “Sowing Seeds of Kindness.”  In preparation, I did a word study on kindness.  I found myself in awe of God’s continual kindness to the unkind.  In my study, the Bible records God’s kindness to the worldly, thankless, unprofitable, lost, disobedient, jealous, angry, physically tired, foolish, spiritually weary, deceived, hateful, selfish, wicked, and depraved.  God’s kindness was not superficial: it ran deep and broad and greatly affected those who experienced it.  The Hebrew word hesed is the Old Testament word for lovingkindness, but the King James Version uses different English words for hesed.  The verses below describe God’s kindness.

God’s kindness to me has always been. Psalm 25:6—Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses [hesed]; for they have been ever of old.

God’s kindness is all around me.  Psalm 32:10—Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy [hesed] shall compass him about.

God’s kindness and truth preserve me.  Psalm 40:11—Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness [hesed] and thy truth continually preserve me.

God’s kindness keeps me from being consumed.  They are new every morning! Lamentations 3:22-23—It is of the Lord’s mercies [hesed] that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

God’s kindness is abundant.  His kindness is a covenant He keeps with His children.  Exodus 34:6-8—And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness [hesed] and truth, keeping mercy [hesed] for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…

Many more verses from the New Testament portray God’s kindness, such as Ephesians 2:2-7 and Titus 3:3-7.  All of these verses reminded me of God’s kindness to me when I was unkind and unloving, and then I began to consider how often I am given the opportunity to be kind to others when they are unkind and unloving.  Let’s review the list that describes all of the kinds of people with whom God showed His kindness.

• Do we ever come across worldly people who need kindness from our local church members?
• Do we ever experience a disobedient child who needs our kindness?
• Have we been faced with an angry person who would quiet down by our kindness?
• Do we find opportunities to be kind to the physically tired or spiritually weary in our ladies’ group?
• Do we extend kindness to the selfish or foolish children in children’s church?
• Have we seen unprofitable members of society come to church looking for our kindness?
• Have we come away from a ladies’ event feeling unappreciated and tempted to treat the thankless ones of the group unkindly?

I can guarantee you that we will come across all types of people in our various church ministries. God showed His kindness to many different types of people, and He did so every day with a newness and abundance to His kindness.

Micah 6:8 says, “He [referring to God] hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy [hesed], and to walk humbly with thy God?”  According to this verse, my job is not to evaluate who deserves my kindness and who does not deserve it.  My job is to love being kind and then start being kind, as we see in 1 Corinthians 13:4a: “Charity suffereth long, and is kind.” Kindness and love are inseparable; thus, we had better understand the word lovingkindness.

May we ladies who have the opportunities to serve others in our local churches love being kind and let our kindness run deep and broad and greatly affect those whom God gives us to minister.