Kindness Still Matters by Bea Tifton

Kindness. It’s so important. So vital to our very existence. Some tiny kindness is like a butterfly fluttering its wings and causing a chain of events that lead to a hurricane. But in a good way. We hear “Pass it on,” but do we? In the isolation of social media and working  at home, entire days might pass without seeing another human being. Or those people become names on a screen and the comments section is open hunting season.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

I remember a little boy in one of my classes when I taught fourth grade. He was not a hard worker. Not a mean bone in his body, but no gumption or sense of responsibility. I talked to his mother several times that year. She was a dear woman and tried her best to light a fire under her son. On Valentine’s Day, I saw him in the hall with a huge teddy bear. His mother had him give it to me when she saw me. He was very grumpy and upset. I thought he was just embarrassed. Then later when we were having the Valentine’s Day party he said, “I wanted everyone to see that I got the biggest present so they’d be impressed.” It wasn’t about being kind. It was just a status thing. Suddenly, I really didn’t like that bear.

Don’t do something kind just so everyone can see you. When we do something kind for someone, our body actually releases endorphins.

And we’ve made a person's or some furry being’s life a tiny bit better. People like to pay for the next person’s coffee or fast food order. That made my week once! But maybe go to a school and offer to pay off some child’s outstanding cafeteria bill. Or donate to an animal shelter. One of the big box stores (you know which one) has affordable little blankets on sale this time of year. The dog isn’t going to care if his comforting blanket has Christmas trees on it, I promise.

Open the door for someone. People don’t smile at each other in stores anymore. Make a concentrated effort to smile and say, “Good morning” to people.

You may think one person can’t make a difference. First of all, you know you are doing whatever you can to be a kind person. That’s important and it’s okay to feel good about that. And you never know. One day I saw a homeless lady. She apologized for being in my way (she wasn’t) and shuffled away. I took her hands and said, “Bless you. You are a child of God. You matter.” She began crying and sobbed, “No one has ever told me I matter.”

What if someone had told her years ago?

 

 

Photo Credits: Pexels.com
Debadutta "Close Up Photo of Monarch Butterfly on Top of Flower"
Gerardo Manzano "Woman Sitting on the Sidewalk Embracing a Big Teddy Bear"  
Dmitry Ovsyannikov "Touching the Nose of a Dog Lying in a Cage"
MART PRODUCTION "Homeless Elderly Woman Holding a Placard"
Jill Wellington "Silhouette Photo of Woman Against During Golden Hour"