Kindness, Grace, and Love

I know it has been a while since I've posted on here, I know that. People get busy, don't judge.

Alright so this post is something a little different than I've done in the past. This is going to be somewhat of a challenge for whoever is reading this. Not like it's going to be hard to read, but like I want to challenge y'all in the way you live your lives.

So recently there's been a lot of ugly drama and hate going around my school, and I'm sure anyone who is reading this can relate to that. Sometimes people just don't always get along, which is fine, but it's not fine when it starts to hurt other people. All of this hate and nastiness all stems from people not knowing how to treat each other correctly. Although I'm not very good at this sometimes, I try my hardest to look at people like God created them. Each human on this earth is a unique and beautiful individual formed in the reflection of our God. So you may be asking how it looks to treat someone like they are formed and created by God. Well that's exactly what this post is about. I'm going to challenge everyone to treat everyone they interact with by remembering only three words: Kindness, Grace, and Love.

Each of the three words above are often looked over and ignored when it comes to socializing, and honestly, they are all extremely hard to exhibit most of the time, but with a little work and effort, these three words can change your life.

The first word is kindness. Now this is a word that people use all the time, but kind of take for granted. I always hear my mom telling me to be kind to other people, but I feel like it's such a general term that I'm not really sure how to use it. For anyone who feels the same way I do, here's a little clarification. The definition for kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. Those are another three words that are awesome qualities that every person should strive to exhibit. By being generous, we humble ourselves and give to others, and the something that you give does not have to be a material something. The giving on kind words and actions can go a lot farther than you would ever expect. I know you hear this a lot, but when people say smiles are contagious, it is so true. By sharing your happiness with someone, you not only lift them up, but they in turn have to opportunity to go show someone the same kindness that you showed them and it can truly start a chain reaction through the grade, community, etc. It's kind of like a "pay it forward day" at Starbucks or something, except with happiness and kindness, which is even better than a free cup of coffee honestly.

The next word is grace, Now this is a word that you hear all the time if you are a Christian. Most of the time it is used referring to the grace that God shows us daily. We are all sinners, but God still loves us and doesn't eternally punish for our evils, but instead allows us to have eternal life with Him. So how do we as humans show grace to other people? It's not like we can tell someone "yes, I know you sinned against me, but I'm still going to let you into Heaven". We don't really have that authority unfortunately. So what can we do? It's pretty simple actually. Forgive. I know it is super hard to forgive people sometimes when we really feel like someone did something terrible to us and it really hurt, but we have to overcome the spite and hatred in our hearts. But why should we do that? Well let's look to the Bible. Matthew 5:7 tells us that "blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." I know it doesn't say the word grace, but grace and mercy go hand in hand. In order to receive grace from God, and also from those around us, we must first exhibit grace. Showing grace can truly be one of the hardest thing to do sometimes, but it is such a good feeling when we let the hate out of our hearts. Not only does storing hate prevent us from growing relationships with people, but it also eats away at us from the inside out. If you never allow the hate to escape, you're going to eventually become rotten, and start doing all of the things that the other people did to put the hate in your heart in the first place. Showing grace to others not only allows the relationship between y'all to grow, but it also takes a huge weight off of your shoulders. The feeling of showing forgiveness and grace is one of the greatest feelings in the world. If you don't want to forgive someone because you don't want them to get away with whatever they did to hurt you, show grace to help yourself move away from the evil and into happiness.

The last and possibly most important word in the English language in my opinion is Love. Love is one of the two emotions that I feel drives us to make most of the decisions that we do day to day. Love is the sole reason we have eternal life. As I'm sure most of y'all have heard, John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son and that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." That's a pretty big deal if you ask me. God was so in love with the world that He left Heaven, a place of perfect peace, to come down to our broken world and live as a man, and ultimately die as a man on a cross, so we would have he chance to spend eternity with Him. That is pure love. God loves enough to have His only son killed so that we could be saved. He took our broken world and gave us a chance to escape it and live in Heaven with Him. If God can show us love on a level that extreme, it should be easy for us to love each other on this earth. Loving someone is always wanting the best for them, no matter the outcome for yourself. Love has the opportunity to change someones life. Have you ever wanted to chance to change and save someone's life? Love them. If you love them in a way that God loves us as humans, the love you have shown them will continue to be inside them wherever they go, and will allow them to spread the same love that you have shown them to other people. Pure joy is found by loving other people. I understand there will always be at least one person you just can't figure out how to be nice to. I promise you, if you open your heart to love, the relationship you have with that person will be changed forever, and I promise you that you will like the outcome.

As my school year winds down and we are within the final 30 days before graduation, it is easy to have your mind set on the upcoming break, college, all of that new stuff. But my challenge to any high schooler about to graduate, anyone who still has a couple years left, or even any adult reading this, treat everyone you meet with the three words above. If we can all learn to treat each other with kindness, grace, and love, this world can be drastically changed. I know everyone is always searching for their own way to change the world, so why not start now.