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Hard to believe we are at the end of February already.  It has been a busy month of fun dress-up days, Valentine’s Day, National Random Acts of Kindness Day, Family Day, and even Groundhog Day.  I think we pretty much had a “day”, every week.  And perhaps these “days” are meant as a distraction from the fact that we live in Canada and we are just trying to get through what tends to be the coldest month of the year and we pine for Spring.  That said, while we have had fun and been somewhat distracted with these “days”, we also have had some amazing learning moments as we focus on the Fruit of the Spirit of kindness and have been tying that into important days like Anti-bullying Day as well as our month-long focus on Black History Month.

 

Even today, during our prayer time this morning, praying for the strife in Ukraine, and at our assembly we spoke about the understanding of where division and hate begin.  When we think and learn of the past atrocities and events that individuals have endured because of the colour of their skin or ethnicity, or the troubles that children have experienced in their schools or communities at the hands of others because they were different or just not liked.  These instances and examples give us a vision of people who do not start with love or kindness, but hate.  They see division and systems that determine people’s worth and value.  They value their comfort or needs over someone else’s.  None of this is anywhere near how God calls us to live, or showed us through His Son Jesus Christ.

 

It may sound too simple a solution, and please don’t think in any way I am trying to diminish the impact of or how we should respond to past inequities, but ultimately each and every one of us needs to stop and think about our future thoughts, words and actions through one filter to start making change moving forward and changing the future.

 

Is what I am about to say, consider or do, kind in God’s eyes? 

(Matthew 7:12; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7; Galatians 6:9; Ephesians 4:32)

 

As we work through the Fruit of the Spirit, these characteristics are not just nice things we should try and practice some of the time.  They aren’t just characteristics that we aspire to but can never seem to reach.  We know as Christians that when we make the decision to accept Christ as our Lord and Saviour, scripture tells us that we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, a guide or helper to navigate life.  Now true to form we still retain the right to choose through our free will and when we choose to be mean, rude, ignorant, hurt someone, say nasty things about them, gossip about them, exclude someone because of their ethnicity, background, social status or gender even, we are not engaging or practicing the Fruit, we are not seeking the Holy Spirit’s help, we are choosing to be counter to God’s will and His desire for our lives as His children.

 

Lord forgive me when I fall into these temptations of my own thoughts, desires and actions that hurt one of your children.  Help me to focus on being kind no matter the circumstances, because there is no circumstance that warrants being unkind to someone, even our perceived enemies as your Word explains (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27-28; Romans 12:20-21; Proverbs 24:17)

 

It is just our little corner of our community and world, but my prayer is that here at PCS we start all thinking, speaking and carrying out our actions by activating the Spirit in our lives so that the Fruit will be evident and bring blessing inside our hallways and spread beyond into our family homes and communities.  From there we look to see the impact that God can have through that one simple decision.  Not easy, but it is a start.