I Can't Say Your Kindness Saved Me

I am a pretty random person.  Very random.  Things I say.  Thoughts that I think.  Things that I do.  I mean I had a pig living inside of my house.  I never thought that one through... I just randomly thought a pig would be a pretty neat INSIDE pet?  Not a good idea.

Sometimes being random isn't necessarily a bad thing. Have you ever had someone you haven't seen or spoken to in years, reach out to you?  When I lived in Baton Rouge, I received a letter from my parents.  But upon opening the letter, it wasn't from my parents.  It was from someone I went to highschool with that I hadn't seen since highschool.  They had no idea where I lived or if the letter would ever reach me.  God had placed me on their heart and they wanted to share that with me.

A couple of months after my dad had passed, I had another person reach out to me.  God had placed me and my son on their heart so she felt the need to share that with me.  This was over 4 years ago.  Several days ago, I felt the need to go back and reread what she had shared with me.  I had forgotten most of what she had written so when I read the words again... tears fell from my eyes.  I don't know if God wanted to remind me of certain things or exactly why I felt the need to reread what she had sent me.  But it certainly made me think long and hard about my life. 

We may go our entire lives and never know the impact we had on someone.  We hear about all these stories after someone passes about how they impacted others.  I heard story after story when my dad passed and I wondered if he had any clue the lasting impact he had on others?  I seriously doubt he did.  So why do we wait to tell someone how much they affect us?  That's not the point of this post so let me get back on track...

"I can't say your kindness saved me or changed me but I also can't say it didn't." WOW!!!!  These are words that brought me to tears.  I don't remember this moment but my friend does.  "You were always kind to me.  You weren't embarrassed to sit on the bench and talk to me...to be my friend.  It's something I never forgot."      

I needed to read those words.  Not to pat myself on the back but to fully understand that our actions matter.  Kindness matters.  The way we treat people matters.  If we could just grasp this, our world would be a much better place.  We may never know how one small gesture could change someone's life.  The way we treat our kids.  The way our kids treat other kids.  The way we treat adults.  The way we treat people that are different than we are.  IT MATTERS!

So after all these years, this friend never forgot how I treated her.  She has prayed for me and those prayers possibly got me through some of the greatest storms in my life.  I never knew she was even praying for me.

So today... sprinkle kindness around like confetti.  This world needs a lot more of it.