I am not a political thinker. I don’t watch the news(except for when my hubby has it on-which I have discouraged since our 9 year old came home from kindergarten 4 years ago convinced that a bad man he saw on the news was walking down Nantasket Ave near Tedeschi’s and we needed to go catch him). Anywho, I woke up this morning curious, anxious to see who won this election. So what did I do? I logged onto face book of course because not only would I get the results, I would get everyone’s opinions. What did I learn this morning? This morning we are one nation under Trump? No. I’m going to write something that may cause me to lose some friends, and since I only have 3 followers so far, not much to lose there. I used my right to vote and I voted. I voted for a write in. Do I regret my decision? No, I don’t. But here is what I know this morning, Mr. Trump will probably not be coming to my neighborhood to hang out. And if Mrs. Clinton would have won, she wouldn’t be coming here either. Neither one has the ability to change the hate, persecution, or prejudice that is happening in our country and around the world daily. Why? Because they can’t change the hearts of people. Go with me here for a minute- I believe that people are mostly good. Maybe that makes me naïve, or clueless-seeing as I don’t watch the news. But when we see or hear about acts of violence, it is performed by 1 or 2 people, against any number of people. It is unfortunate in small numbers or large numbers. The problem here is a heart issue, a sin issue. And our president is not going to fix the hearts of American’s. Only God can do that.

As I scrolled through my face book feed reading the victories and defeats, I came across a post by Firefighter Wife, shared from The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. It is a picture of two children walking down a dirt road, the little girl has her arm around a younger boy and the caption next to it reads: MAKE AMERICA KIND AGAIN. Firefighter Wife posted, “Regardless of who you’re casting a vote for today, you have the power to make America KIND again. Hold a door. Smile at a stranger. Do a secret act of kindness” I shared this on my page and posted that this is the mission I am sending my kids to school with today.

A little while later when we were seated around the breakfast table the conversation began. I sat my kids down and said, we have a new president(7 year old asked who-I didn’t answer at the point) and it doesn’t matter who won. About half of our country is going to be happy and the other half are going to be upset or angry(9 year old interrupted and got technical with my numbers reminding me that more than half will be happy or angry because you need more than half of the votes to win-he is really too smart for me). I looked at them and said that no matter who our next president is, God is in control and Jesus is king. I told them that we are going to pray for our country and we are going to pray for our president, that he would know God and lead our country in a Godly way. I told them that no matter what we are not going to talk about our president in a negative way, that if we can’t think of anything nice to say, we aren’t going to say anything at all. And lastly, I challenged my kids and myself to go out and be kind today. Go help your teacher, help a friend, be a good listener, hold a door open. Anything to set the tone, just be kind!

I thought about this call for kindness all day. For me, an introvert, it is easier to put my head down and keep to myself, but how can I share kindness, how can I spread kindness, by keeping to myself? So I stopped and talked to our mailman, I smiled and waved to people in the crosswalk as I let them cross the street, I gave my kids and my husband extra hugs and extra kind words. I chose my tone carefully today and made an effort to spend quality time with each member of my family. I want to fill their love buckets, because maybe if their buckets are filled and over flowing with love and kindness it will be so evident to others that it will be contagious. Or maybe if they are so filled with love, they will want to share it with others.

How can you spread kindness? What can you do to make a difference? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. I look forward to hearing what you can do!

 

Advertisement