October 2022

Kindness
When I was in sixth grade my teacher was Mrs. Houser. There was another sixth-grade teacher named Miss Johnson, who was not my teacher, and one day for some reason the two classes were together in Miss Johnson’s classroom.
One of the students asked if it was Miss Johnson or Mrs. Johnson. Miss Johnson explained her name was “Miss Johnson because she was not married.”
Being the precocious child I was, I added the comment, “She was a Miss because no one would marry her.” It got a few laughs that I hoped it would get from some of the students. While Miss Johnson ignored the comment that she most certainly heard.
Skip ahead a week.
At school, someone had put a bike lock on the back wheel of my bicycle which made it impossible to ride. So, I had the task of trying to drag my bicycle three-quarters of a mile to my home.
I had made it across the street and was heading home through the dirt when a car pulled up and the driver asked me, “What is wrong with your bike?” It was Miss Johnson.
I explained the problem. And she offered to help me put my bike in the back of her car and that she would give me and my bike a ride home. Of course, I took her up on her kind offer.
We got to my house, and unloaded the bike, I thanked her, and she drove away.
Whenever it is in my power to show someone a small act of kindness, I often think about Miss Johnson.
She showed me a great act of kindness when she had no reason to. She made my life a little better even though I was a stranger who had been rude and disrespectful to her.
Galatians 5:22-23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
Kindness is listed exactly in the middle of the list of the Fruit of Spirit. Which is where kindness should be in the heart of every believer.
That is what I think anyway.
Jody <><