Have You Ever Been This Kind?
When was the last time you did something that was so amazingly kind that others will remember your actions the rest of their lives?
If it’s been awhile, I encourage you to take two minutes to watch a video clip of some young men who refused to play basketball against another team … as an act of incredible kindness. (If a screen does not appear below, click here.)
Kindness … one of the most life-changing values the world has ever known. Is it flowing through your life?
– Ken Sande
Reflection Questions
- How do you think the Gainesville players felt when they entered a gym with hundreds of people cheering for them? How could this kind of encouragement and support change the course of these young men’s lives?
- Think of a time when someone showed you this kind of unexpected and extravagant kindness. How did it make you feel? What impact did it have on your life?
- If you were one of the Vanguard players, would your worldview and its accompanying value system have moved you to show this kind of kindness to the Gainesville team?
- Have you had an opportunity to show this kind of kindness in recent days? What did you do with that opportunity?
- If you’d like develop a greater capacity to see and act on opportunities to exercise kindness, read Seven Steps to Empathy and Serving a Barista.
Permission to distribute: Please feel free to download, print, or electronically share this message in its entirety for non-commercial purposes with as many people as you like.
© 2015 Ken Sande
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6 Responses to "Have You Ever Been This Kind?"
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Terribly encouraging post, Ken. Thanks so much!
Thanks, Curt. These young men inspired me too! I thank God that because of his grace, both common and special, there are millions of these kinds of actions around the world every day.
Imagine the impact if 90% of the news had stories like this, instead of the other way around. I showed this story to my boys that play basketball. I hope it encourages them to stand out in a positive way like those boys.
Amen!
Thank you for sharing and for the discussion points. I live in Los Angeles today I was feeling very particularly discouraged and low about humanity, and the direction of our society. Thank you for sharing this reminder that there are people who value kindness. I am hoping my husband and I will use the discussion points with our teen girls.
Thank you, Audrey. I sometimes feel the same way, but then I remind myself (and my family) that for every bad report we read in the news there are 10,000 incidents where God has moved people to act with kindness. If you’d like to share some other examples of kindness with your girls, you could talk about these blog posts: http://rw360.org/2014/12/07/giving-kidney-models-rw/, http://rw360.org/2014/10/19/1000-acts-kindness/, http://rw360.org/2014/07/06/raising-empathetic-children/, http://rw360.org/2014/05/26/rw-quiz/, http://rw360.org/2013/12/22/two-acts-kindness/, http://rw360.org/2013/11/10/dophins-vs-eagles/; http://rw360.org/2013/05/30/love-your-enemy/. And since you’ve got teen girls, you may want to talk about this blog too: http://rw360.org/2013/06/22/hooked/. As long as they are under your roof, discuss the principles of RW as much as you can!