It's the theme for the new school year. Catch kids being kind. It's been fun to see the positives, to encourage the seedlings of good, and just to bless and be blessed.
One of the threads of this whole past summer has been multiple conversations about stereotyping, and judgements. Reality is, no matter who you are, or what part of the world you hail from, you have a certain filter or worldview that you measure everything and everyone by. Your culture will always try to inform your filter, but it doesn't mean you have to go by what they say.
I confess the man with the beat up car who said thanks sorta blew my profiling way out of the water. You see, not everything is as it appears. Just because a car is beat up doesn't mean the driver's the bad guy. Yours truly can testify to owning a currently scratched car that I wasn't even inside when the damage was done. Crazy things happen like helicopter wind pushing things into cars while you sit in the ER with a friend, but insurance should be covering soon. I could say, "Well my car isn't as beat up as his..." but that misses the point. I don't know his story, anymore then he knows mine. But he was thoughtful enough to say thanks. He really gets the kindness challenge, the moral of the "Find the Positive" story. I have no right to expect less cause his car is beat up worse then mine. Take the beam out of your own eye before you start judging someone else. Could be a 747 made an emergency landing and hit his car. Maybe insurance hasn't kicked in for him yet either.
One grade has been learning about making predictions about what comes next in the story. We can also make our own hypotheses about people and the story of their lives. We need to either confirm that we are right, or adjust our way of thinking, after we find out more details of the story.
Whenever you come in contact with people from different backgrounds and cultures, you come face to face with different ideas rubbing against your own worldview. In the fray, apply kindness and compassion. Accept the kindness challenge. Find the positive. Make the difference only you can make. When they speak harshly, speak grace. When you find differences that are hard to reconcile, combine truth with love.
Another thing this world could use more is empathy. Just because someone looks ok, doesn't mean they are. You don't know what is going on. Broken hearts, shattered dreams, depression, sickness, and more can go undetected to the visible eye. If you have been there, and even if you haven't, apply the kindness challenge to everyone you meet.
The Kindness Challenge. Go ahead, change the world. It happens one small kindness at a time.
