"KINDNESS IS CONTAGIOUS"

Good Evening to All!

For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. (4) But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, (5) not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, (6) whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, (7) that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (8) This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly. That those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good words. These things are good and profitable to men. Titus 3:3-8 KJV

The Message Bible explains it this way: It wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. god's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there's more life to come--an eternity of life! You can count on this. I want you to put your foot down. take a firm stand on these matters so that those who have put their trust in God will concentrate on the essentials that are good for everyone.

Have you ever noticed how laughter is contagious? What about smiles? I know as for myself, when I'm around someone who laughs a lot it tends to have a wonderful happy effect on me. I loosen up and laugh as well. The same with smiles. I can be having a terrible day, but let someone walk past me and smile, it brightens my day up and has me smiling as well.

The other attitudes are the same way, unfortunately the bad as well as the good. I want to concentrate on Kindness tonight though. As much as I don't want to criticize my own gender, I think we as women are the worst. We let the least little things get to us and ruin our whole outlook for the day. We can also be very ugly. We can let things get us to the point where we become foolish, bitter, angry, envious and hateful especially if we are hurt, ridiculed or unloved.

Then again, if someone feels loved, appreciated, they tend to be cheerful, smile, and speaks gently.

We need to be examples of the latter example. We must always remember that God loves us, so no matter what comes in this earthly life there is ALWAYS someone who is there for us and loves us completely. Therefore, we should always be kind and loving toward others.

Paul wrote this passage in a letter to Titus, a friend and leader organizing churches in Crete. He emphasizes the kindness, love, and mercy of God and encouraged good deeds and kindness among Christians.

In God's Word, He tells us to "Be Ye perfect as I am perfect". That doesn't mean perfection as in no blemishes or make no mistakes. If I understand it correctly, it means to continually strive to be Christlike, striving for the accomplishments of His attributes which are the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance

Now as I have said before, I have no formal training, and I have taken so many notes from our church services, I wouldn't know where to begin to look it up, (although I remember my Pastor teaching on the subject of perfection). So if a Pastor has a better understanding of this "perfection" it wouldn't hurt my feelings if you would leave me a comment as to what your understanding of it means.

The point I'm trying to make is, if we will strive for the above attributes, kindness will always be in our hearts, and we will be contagious to others. It kind of reminds me of the movie "Pay It Forward". I can't help but wonder what would happen if something like that took off.

Do something kind for someone even if it's just a smile tomorrow.

Good Night to All and May God Bless!