Who doesn’t like a compliment? Do you realize that when you are kind to someone else it benefits you? Proverbs 11:17, “A kind man benefits himself…”
Last week when I was at church and washing my hands in the women’s restroom, I overheard a young woman pay an elderly woman a compliment about what she was wearing. As I looked up in the mirror, I saw this elderly woman light up like a “Christmas tree”. The smile that spread across her face was evidence that the compliment had nourished her soul.
I have found in life that if you find a reason to find the “good in someone,” or you like something or you like the way someone looks, you should tell that person. I love on a daily basis, when I am “out and about,” to look for the positive in others and tell them what I see, even if it is a stranger.
I was at the CVS pharmacy counter the other day waiting in a long line. It was evident that the lady in front of me was battling cancer (no hair and very thin). She beckoned the guy at the check-out counter to smile. His reply was, “I will smile when I get off work at 5.” As I stepped up I said, “It is a shame you won’t give a smile before 5 because you look so handsome when you smile!” He then began to smile…all three of us had a good laugh and were still smiling when we left.
On the Back 9, as I have written many times now, it nourishes your life to slow down and pay attention to people in your “everyday life”–the ones God puts in your path to give to them a kind word or a sincere compliment. This simple act can be a “powerful” gesture and it costs you nothing.
Yes, we all possess the power to affect someone’s day! We just get too busy and self-centered at times to see others. I make it a point when eating out to find the best thing about our server and tell them. As I have adopted this habit, it amazes me to see the power we possess to affect someone else’s day.
My question to you is: Why not do it?
Making a conscious decision to give away kindness and find the good in others is a simple way to spread the love of Christ and put into practice the powerful scripture found in Proverbs 3:27, “Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act….”
“Be kind whenever possible, it is always possible!” and “Kindness is the language the blind can see and the death can hear.”