The Journey of the Kind-Hearted

Mike Yakawich
June 2009

In his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul wrote: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice And be you kind one to another , tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.”4:31-32 St. Paul reminds the people to be kind one to another. St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians in 62 A.D. He had his challenges in keeping the Body of believes united and loving each other. He encouraged his people to be kind to one another. Webster’s Dictionary: Kindness “sympathetic friendly, gentle, tenderhearted generous, affectionate, generous qualities, altruistic inclination, benevolent, agreeable, courtesy, to thank heartily, Kindhearted, Kindness, Kindred.

What is the opposite of kind-hearted? "Kindless": lacking kindness, lacking natural feeling, unnatural. Unkind, unfeeling, cruel. I am sure we all have given kindles and have received kindles. I am sorry if I was not kind-hearted to you. The Holy Bible reminds us of the value of being kind to one another. Striving for kindness. “And to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity.” (II Peter 1:7) What is kindness? Perhaps, you can tell me. I can think of some examples of kindness: Clean up around the church grounds. Vacuum your home.

Pick up the garbage in the neighborhood. How are we doing in terms of kindness? Is your kindness box overflowing or is it empty? Do you need to fill your kindness box? Can you fill it with patience, compassion, understanding, giving, and listening? It is my testimony that you are a kind hearted church. I hear stories of you visiting members who are shut in. You go to the elderly and play music for them. You perform Japanese dances or teach origami art classes. You serve in the community, volunteer and give to those in need. These are all aspects of giving kindness. I read a cartoon recently from my desk calendar. It reminded me of kindness. Pictured is an Old Testament prophet with a knife in his hand. Sitting on the offering table is a lamb holding a wallet of money. As the Lamb is handing out some money to the prophet he comments, “Dude, blood sacrifices are so old school. Here, if you’re going to make an offering, use this... It’s much more convenient and a whole lot less messy.”

In reflection, I first must ask myself, can I be more kind-hearted? The answer is YES! Therefore, I too can ask each of you, can you be more kind-hearted? We need to give kindness and we need to receive kindness: Kindness in prayers. Thinking of others, keeping others on our heart. Kindness in words. Sending a postcard, note, letter, or speaking to someone. Sometimes rather than speaking it is in listening more to ones spouse, ones child or ones neighbor. Kindness in action. Serving, giving, taking someone out for coffee, volunteering, baking cookies or raking someone’s yard.

While I was chairing a meeting last week, I had to stop someone in the audience from speaking unkind remarks to another. Since I knew this feud has been going on for a few months now, I was more aware of the situation between them. Later, I went to this person and asked him if I was out of bounds by stopping him from speaking? If I was, I apologized. Yet, he replied that he felt it was good for him to be stopped since he felt he “needed to be more gentle”, more kind to this other person.

We must seek out ways for encouragement, uplifting, honoring, and caring for one another. When we read of the History of the Providence into the Divine Principle, we discover the goal of restoration. We must bring all things back to Heavenly Father from the Fall of Man. Just like Jacob who loved his brother Esau, we are called to care, express kindness to one another. Jacob had to go through drudgery (work that is hard, menial or tiresome) in Haran (Gen 31:41). Are we willing to go through some drudgery to journey as a kindhearted person and build a little more of the kingdom wherever we go.

Colossians 4:12 “Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering” You may ask what are some ramifications of kindness. Yesterday, I conducted my third funeral this year. I am sincerely grateful and honored to conduct a funeral. It takes a lot of time in preparation and implementation. I spend an average of about ten hours on a funeral. There were about 200 people at this ceremony in Red Lodge. As I pondered, all three of these people never stepped foot into our church. In fact, none of their family members did either. I have gotten to know two of these people, their family and friends through my business. The other was a next door neighbor. I thought that this is the power of kindness. Surprisingly, the funeral home director in Red Lodge said that it is very powerful to see a pastor conduct funerals for people who seem to know him as family but never attended his church.

What acts of kinds and for how long are we willing to commit to? Remember kindness generates and builds power. There is much power and energy and inspiration when one can give prayers, words and actions of encouragement and kindness. Please do your best this week and bring back a testimony next week how you found God and power in this way.