A Few Kind Words

 

“Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.”

—Proverbs 12:25

A few kind words can have a startlingly positive effect. That’s why kindness represents a characteristic worth pursuing.

Deep inside, my dad always thought of himself as less than worthy because he never finished high school. Truthfully, he was a very wise man who had more common sense and practical life experience than most other men. He had a strong native intelligence that, given other circumstances, would have allowed him to rise to great heights. Instead, he used the gifts God had given him to reach out and help other people, often in his own unique way.

My dad taught me to treat everyone the same—to show no favorites and treat everyone with equal respect. He especially told me to make friends with what he called “the little people—people like you and me.”

My dad was referring to the people who do what he called “the real work”: the maintenance and cleaning crew, the security guards, the technicians who keep the machinery running, all of the support people who work almost silently behind the scenes. And, he also taught me to treat everyone with equal kindness. Please let me illustrate with this account:

Once I was working late at night at the insurance company where I was employed. One of the cleaning crew came around the corner and startled me. He quickly apologized. Just as quickly, I assured him I was the one at fault. After all, at this time in the middle of the night, I was the one intruding into his work space.

Then, I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit. “I hope you know how much we all appreciate what you do every night,” I told him. “It is really helpful to work in a clean space. Thank you for your hard work.” Then, I asked him what his name was.

He told me his name and said, “Thank you.” Then, he went on his way. In a moment I heard him begin to whistle a little tune.

Soon, whenever I encountered a member of the maintenance or cleaning crew, I would be greeted with a smile and a cheerful, “Hello, Mr. Wilson.” I would ask the person’s name and also ask him or her to please address me by my first name. “Please call me ‘Dean’,” I would say, with a chuckle, “Mr. Wilson is my father.”

It wasn’t long before I knew the first and last name of every member of the maintenance and cleaning crew. When we would encounter each other, we would exchange a few words of conversation. I began to learn about their families and what they were interested in doing when they weren’t at work.

One day, several years later, one of the cleaning crew appeared at the door of my cubicle. I invited him to sit down. With tears he told me his wife had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and asked me to please pray for her. I bowed my head, laid my hands over his, and prayed fervently for his wife.

As the weeks passed, I would seek him out for a report on his wife. I kept praying as she had surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.

Then came the day when he joyfully reported that his wife had been declared cancer free. A few months later, right around Christmas time, he appeared at the door to my cubicle with a sweet-looking woman at his side. “I wanted you to meet my wife,” he said with pride in his eyes. It was my great joy and genuine pleasure to meet this woman for whom I had prayed during the many months.

Remember how this story began? All I did was heed my earthly father’s instruction to treat everyone the same, with respect and with kindness. And, when my loving heavenly Father nudged me, I obediently responded.

You see, there is nothing special about me—nothing whatsoever. In many ways, I am a very flawed person. In this case, I was just acting as an emissary of our Great King, Jesus.

Notice what King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 12:25:

Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.

As we begin a new day, let’s determine to speak many more kind words in order to build each other up and to build up everyone around us. Doing this will surely make our precious Father smile.

 

Originally posted on Thursday, February 26, 2015

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