Kindness

Kindness

 July 9, 2024

I wanted to share with you my feelings of the importance of being kind. As the world continues to be bombarded by influencers, politicians, social media, and others trying to influence us to do something, be something, buy something, that will probably make them more money or have more power or influence, Grandpa wants each of you grandchildren to be kind.

Some of the characteristics of kindness that are important from Grandpa's point of view include:

  • Motive for kindness - I believe it is important that you realize early on that kindness should be born out of pure genuine good feelings. This is most commonly found when you love other people, including yourself. If you perform an act of kindness for someone, and it is not founded out of pure feelings of goodness, love, charity etc., then that act of kindness becomes "less". If you ever have a question about why your motives for kindness are important, and I am still alive, just ask me what this means and I will be happy to talk more about it.

  • Timing for kindness - Kindness can happen in both planned and unplanned situations. Both types should be part of your daily life.
  • Who should you be kind to - Yourself, your family, your friends, your teachers, the grocery store clerk, a person walking past you on the street, people on social media, etc.
    • Special Note: Without paying close attention, we can be the least kind to our family members. We think this is OK but it is definitely not. We should especially be kind to our grandparents (not just because I am writing this....), parents, siblings, other family members. This is a great way to measure how kind we are being.
  • Acts of kindness - Short examples
    • Helping your neighbor next door.
    • When one of your siblings is yelling, give them a big hug without saying anything.
    • Doing chores "well" before you are asked to do them at all.
    • Helping someone in a parking lot who looks like they could use it.
    • Saying something nice to someone at school you don't normally talk to.
    • Making something nice (cookies, drawing, letter, etc.) for someone who is sad.
    • Being positive when everyone else is not.
    • Sending Grandpa a nice box of chocolates (OK, i did sneak that one in....)
  • Acts of "Un"-kindness - Yelling at someone, speaking unkindly to someone - which includes calling them a bad name, taking advantage of someone or a situation, gossiping, physically abusing someone, verbal abuse (which is yelling at someone or telling them how dumb they are.) 

Examples of Kindness
"A Balloon Story" Grammy shared with me.
Years ago, when your parents were your age (Nick was around 2 and Lacey would have been around 13), Grandpa and Grammy had taken your parents (our children) over to Grandpa and Grandma Randall's to play games. All five of the children had gotten a helium balloon from a shop we visited before making the trip. They all had them in the car.

As we arrived at Grandpa and Grandma Randall's house, Nick's balloon flew out the window and up into the air. Of course, Nick started crying about the loss of his balloon. Grammy thought to herself as she was getting out of the car, "I will stop Nick's crying by asking Lacey to give up her balloon and give it to Nick". As she came around the car, and before she could say anything, she saw that Lacey had gathered the rest of 'your parents' around Nick, and Lacey was counting down " 3, 2, 1," and at "1", everyone (Lacey, Jenny, Jason, and even young Matt) let go of their balloons into the air and all the children watched them go up into the sky with Nick's. Everyone was happy as they watched all the balloons float away, Nick stopped crying and they all were laughing and talking together.

That was an act of kindness that had a pure motive of love behind it. Grammy said it was a much better solution than her idea of asking Lacey to give up her balloon for Nick. All four of the children acted in kindness with Lacey leading the way. As you can tell, this act of kindness was not planned, it just happened.

Picture Below - Your parents were just a little younger when this act of kindness happened. This picture was taken from off Grandpa and Grammy's back deck. No, we didn't do a very good job of taking this picture with the sun. It looks like it must have been a Sunday since they are in their Sunday clothes. Oh, and Nick is hugging Bo, our dog.



 



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