Things My Mother Taught Me | Be Kind

Do you disregard…His kindness…not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?  Romans 2:4

“Do you see now?” a mother asked her defiant daughter. “I’ll have to pay for the damage you caused when you stole my car. I’m barely making ends meet, but I’ll do it because I love you. You’re my child and nothing will change that.” The girl suddenly broke into tears and threw herself into her mother’s arms. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I don’t know what came over me. You should punish me or something. I keep thinking if I mess up enough, you’ll send me back into foster care. But you don’t. I don’t know why. I would if I was you. Why are you always so nice to me?” The mother smiled. “Because God is nice to me.”

God IS nice to us. He shouldn’t be. He should send us all back into foster care because of all the damage we cause. But He doesn’t. Once He adopts us as His own, He showers kindness on us when we don’t deserve it. He sees potential where others see failure, He sees strengths where others see weakness, and He orchestrates events in our lives to lead us to the end of ourselves because that’s where we find His grace.

What seem like catastrophes to us may actually be acts of kindness as our heavenly Father works to pry our greedy hands from areas that are harming us. He has patience with us when others have given up. And He offers the blood of His Son Jesus as payment for the debt we owe Him. His kindness is not meant to indulge us in our sin. It is there to remind us of how faithful and loving He is. We can be nice to others because God is nice to us.

Final Thought:  God’s kindness is designed to lead us to repentance.  Don’t take it for granted.

Prayer: Father, I have taken your kindness for granted. I’ve told myself that because you’re so loving, I can get away with pleasing myself. I was wrong. Please forgive me. I want to repent because you’re so kind to me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.