Perhaps there is nothing we need more of than love and kindness.  There is so much pain and conflict that, without love and kindness, this would be a very cold world.  Naturally, we all hope to be the recipients of kindness, but we don't really have much control over the kindness of others.  The only person whose kindness we can control is ourselves.  We have almost an unlimited capacity to do kind things for others and to say kind words.  It is our choice as to how often we tap that capacity.

There is no shortage of opportunities to be kind.  There are people all around us who desperately need to feel appreciated. In addition to our family, friends, and neighbors, we come into contact with so many other people.  The frustrated checkout clerk at our local supermarket receives more than his or her share of criticism during a day's work. A friendly smile and a compliment can do so much for such a person.  And a cheerful "Good Morning!" to people we barely know can often make their day.

We too often take our friends and family for granted.  We feel so confident that they already know how much we love them that we sometimes fail to tell them so.  Small children are easily frustrated, as they try to do things that they are not yet mature enough to accomplish, and we can ease their frustration by complimenting them for their efforts.  We can comment on how nice a person's hair looks or how much we enjoy seeing their smiling face.     

Why are we so much more likely to criticize others than to compliment them?  Why do we focus so much on the shortcomings of others instead of on their virtues? Is it because criticism comes so much easier to us than kindness?  Or is it because we live in a world that has become so accustomed to taking the low road that it just seems natural?  Saying kind words to others will certainly do them a lot more good than criticizing them.  Constructive criticism, given in the right context, might sometimes cause a person to want to improve.  But, most of the time, criticism accomplishes nothing but to hurt the feelings of others.  On the other hand, kind words can make people feel better about themselves and encourage them to try to do even better.  Wasn't William Makepeace Thackeray right when he advised us to "Never lose a chance to say a kind word?"

Copyright 2014 Allen W. Smith

TB-125—Posted 07/12/2014