Created for Kindness
In the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
—Genesis 1:27
A recent study at the Yale University Infant Conition Center reminds us that we are created to show and receive kindness. In the study, researchers had babies—ranging in age from six to ten months—watch a wooden toy try to climb to the top of a roller-coaster incline. As the toy climbed, some toys came along to help it over the top, while others came along to push it back down. Then the babies were given the chance to play with any of the toys. Almost every child chose the toys that had helped!
We are created in the image of a kind God. That means we are drawn to kindness—and even search for it—from the time we are very young. We never lose our need for kindness, but as adults we sometimes value ambition and prestige more. Particularly in the business world, it can be easy to forget that our minds and emotions were made to respond to kindness, not harshness.
When we act kindly toward others, they will be drawn to us and to God. That's why being kind is so energizing. When we are kind, we are acting as we were created to act.
Prayer
Dear God, I want to choose every day to act and speak in the way you created me to.
Dr. Gary Chapman is the beloved best-selling author of The Five Love Languages and Love as a Way of Life. For more information, click here.
