Hey! What are you doing in a couple of days? How are you spending your February? I’d like to invite you to spend your February with us in our Online Bible Study Community. We’re doing a Kindness Challenge for the month! Here’s how this all started.
For the month of January, our Online Bible Study Community has been reading, writing, praying, and studying 1 & 2 Timothy. The other night for our weekly Live Zoom Call (recorded for those who can’t make it live), we dug deeper into 2 Timothy 2:23-26
Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people. Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.
Digging into the part about “being kind to everyone,” we talked about kindness as a virtue and as a Fruit of the Spirit. We pondered a quote from Fr. Lovasik’s book, The Hidden Power of Kindness. We also considered a kindness quote from Fr. Faber
“Kindness has converted more sinners than either zeal, eloquence, or learning; and these last three have never converted anyone unless they were kind also.”
Um…WOW!
Looping back to the Scripture verse where it states, “Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth,” we focused on the fact that our responsibility is to gently instruct…God’s responsibility is to change or convert the hearts of others.
Um…WOW!
The Kindness Challenge
So then, like the good friend that I am {{AHEM}}…you know, one of those friends who comes at you with, “Guess what!?! WE’RE running a 5K!!” And you’re like, “Wait? What?” And that friend goes on to explain how they want to run a 5K and they want you to train and run with them, so you’re BOTH running the 5K…yeah, that’s me with the kindness challenge.
See, I decided then and there, on the Live Zoom Call, I needed to work on my kindness; you can’t accuse me of not being honest. With February being the month of love, and not wasting any time, I decided I needed a plan, a challenge, to train myself in kindness. Since we were reading, writing, praying, and studying 1 & 2 Timothy, we had just read 1 Timothy 4:7, “…train yourself to be godly.”
If we need to train ourselves to be godly and can train ourselves to be godly, I’m pretty confident we should and can train ourselves in kindness; especially since kindness is a Fruit of the Spirit.
Virtues and Fruits of the Holy Spirit
Here’s an explanation I found about the Gifts and Fruits and of the Holy Spirit, “If the gifts of the Holy Spirit are like virtues, the fruits of the Holy Spirit are the actions that those virtues produce. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, through the gifts of the Holy Spirit we bear fruit in the form of moral action. In other words, the fruits of the Holy Spirit are works that we can perform only with the aid of the Holy Spirit. The presence of these fruits is an indication that the Holy Spirit dwells in the Christian believer.”
Here’s a good working definition of kindness, “Kindness is doing something and not expecting anything in return- no conditions. Kindness is respect and helping others without waiting for someone to help one back. It implies kindness no matter what- whether we are being loved on or being persecuted.”
Eeek! Persecuted? Not expecting anything in return? No conditions?
Maybe you understand why I termed this a “challenge” and why I want friends with me as I train.
The Kindness Challenge Community
Most challenges seem to be a little bit easier when we have encouragement from others, yes? Dare I say they can maybe even be a little fun? That’s what I’m hoping for this February–a good solid challenge with friends. I seriously want to grow and stretch my kindness muscles. I also seriously know there will be “opportunities,” which is code for “challenges,” as I set out with intention and purpose to train myself in kindness.
Thus the kindness challenge invitation! Not only will we encourage each other, we’ll also have each other’s back when the “opportunities” come at us!
Our Online Bible Study Community will be reading, writing, praying, and studying kindness scriptures. We’ll have kindness quotes to ponder. We’ll meet once a week in a Live Zoom Call, recorded for those who can’t make it live, and there will be some challenges along the way. These challenges will be focused and specific to help keep us on track and accountable–think of a training schedule.
We will be spending the month of February, the month of our kindness challenge, living 1 Corinthians 16:14. I love the way it’s worded in the Passion Translation,
Let love and kindness be the motivation behind all that you do.
When you join us, friend me on Facebook and I’ll get you added to our private Facebook group. Then message me your mailing address for a surprise!
Well, I went from being kind, to being persecuted, all within a couple of weeks! Think I’ve already surpassed the challenge for February. We can move on to March now!
LOL! Not the persecuted part, the part about skipping forward to March!