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Leaving church Sunday morning, the enduring and heartfelt smiles we just shared with our fellow brothers and sisters slowly disappeared once our feet hit the parking lot pavement. Casual niceties slowly emerged into low grumbles, especially when my hubby mentioned we would be eating lunch at home since there was plenty of food in the pantry. Yet, rather than being grateful, the groans of complaint grew louder. The backseat quickly became a bickering battleground as arguments broke out over silly and trivial things. The car filled up with stifling tension, and from my side eye, I noticed my husband tight-knuckling the steering wheel and clenching his jaw. Yep! It was apparent that the message our pastor just delivered on embracing kindness seemed to simply graze right over this crew!
Come to think of it, kindness easily gets lost in the shuffle of life sometimes, doesn’t it? After all, we can hear a powerful message on the importance of being kind and still fail to carry it out less than fifteen minutes later! Oh, how I sincerely hope we aren’t the only family that leaves church only to find that sin meets us as soon as we step foot into the parking lot. Ugh!
Whether you deal with sin in your church parking lot or not, let me ask you this: Is your love kind? Better yet, how do you know? I ask this because we must check our hearts and put the precious virtue of kindness under the lens of our faith. The way the world views kindness and the way our God views kindness are indirectly different. So, how can we be sure that once we drive away from our congregations and enter the mission field we are aligning our hearts to share kindness in the way that pleases God?