Henry James once said, “Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.”

If I were to ask if you are kind, what would you say?

If I were to ask people in your inner circle if you are kind, what would they say?

Are the answers to these two questions both “Yes”?

Today I took our youngest daughter to lunch at Waffle House. Two really neat things happened during our time together.

First, traffic came to a standstill as we were driving to the restaurant. It happened at a very busy – and unusual – place. I jumped out of my car to investigate. What horrible thing did I see?

Neighborly people had all stopped their cars to help a young lady capture her (very large) dog who had escaped from his fenced-in yard. A local sheriff had actually pulled over and put his lights on in order to protect the car of the dog’s owner. Here were a bunch of people who were helping just because they wanted to be kind.

Once we entered the restaurant, we noticed that it was very busy, so decided to eat at the counter. There were two seats between a man on one end a woman on the other. As we spoke to them, the man in his 60’s or early 70’s told us a story about the time he found two young ladies who were traveling the US who were stranded on the side of the highway on a very cold winter night a few months ago. He offered them a ride to his hometown, which they accepted. He said he just could not stand the thought of leaving them on the side of the road, so he paid for a hotel room for them in his hometown. He ended by saying, “After all, what’s $100 anyway?”

Shortly thereafter, I started speaking to the woman beside me. She was a regular at the restaurant, as she was calling all of the employees by name, and cutting up with them. She mentioned that she used to teach mentally disabled children. She told a couple of the waitresses that nowadays she babysits for parents of such children. She went on to say that she does not charge full price for the parents of children that used to teach.

As we left the restaurant, these occurrences were not lost on our 13-year-old. She said, “Dad, I do not believe in coincidences. I believe that God wanted us to see people helping catch the dog, and that He wanted us to hear from these two people in the restaurant. Maybe He wants you to write your next blogpost about Kindness.“

Consider it done, Dear Child.

May you start making a consistent effort to be kind every day. You may never know the impact you will have on other people when you do!