GOD COMMANDS KINDNESS BECAUSE GOD VALUES KINDNESS.
Bible Reading of the Day: Read Jeremiah 9:23-24.
Verse of the Day: “We have proved ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, our sincere love, and the power of the Holy Spirit” (2 Corinthians 6:6).
Mom sat with her sister at the picnic table in the backyard, watching Evan and his cousin playing in the driveway. Evan’s new red-and-white tricycle gleamed in the sunlight as he rode it around the driveway. His cousin Vincent sat on the low brick wall that lined the driveway, swinging his legs and kicking the wall with his heels.
Finally, Evan stopped riding the tricycle he had gotten for his birthday, trotted across the driveway to the fence, and reached over the fence to pet the family dog for a few moments. As he petted the dog, however, he saw Vincent slowly climb down from his seat on the wall, stroll over to the tricycle, and sit down on it.
“No!” Evan shouted. He forgot all about the dog and ran to his tricycle. “I’m not done riding it,” he said, and waited for Vincent to get off the tricycle seat.
Mom waited a few moments, then walked over to Evan, who was furiously pedaling the tricycle in circles around the drain in the center of the driveway.
“That’s a really nice tricycle, isn’t it?” Mom said.
Evan nodded and stopped pedaling. “I can make it go really fast,” he said.
“You really love it, don’t you?” Mom asked.
Evan nodded again. “It’s the best birthday gift I ever got!”
Mom crouched beside the tricycle and took one of Evan’s hands into her own. “You know how you value this tricycle, how you think it’s really neat?”
Evan nodded.
“Well,” Mom continued, “God values things in much the same way. But you know what he thinks is even neater and better than tricycles?” Evan didn’t move. He looked at Mom with curiosity.
Mom smiled. “God really loves kindness, Evan,” she said. “He thinks being kind to other people is really, really neat—just like you think this tricycle is neat.”
As Mom stood, she mussed Evan’s hair. Then she walked back toward the picnic table where her sister, Vincent’s mom, still sat. Before she reached the table, however, she saw a smile cross her sister’s face. She turned to look back at Evan. She watched as Evan rode his tricycle to the low brick wall where Vincent sat.
“Do you wanna take turns riding my neat tricycle?” Evan asked.
Vincent smiled and jumped off the wall.
TO DO: Post a sheet of paper on the refrigerator. Have everyone in the family list one chore or task that he or she needs help doing. The whole family can model kindness by doing one of the tasks for someone else this week.
TO PRAY: “God, we know that you command us to be kind because you value kindness. Help us to be kind to each other and to everyone else—even those we find it hard to be kind to—because we know that pleases you.”
