“Be Kind.”  Walk into almost any school, and you will see that reminder hanging on walls or recited in assemblies. For most of us aged ones, we were raised to be nice to others.  Now, because of bullying and the attacks on social media, the “Be Kind” message somehow has skipped much of this younger generation.  Parents, take note.

Yesterday, I, as usual, looked for the shortest line in the grocery store.  There wasn’t one.  The self-checkout lines dragged down the aisles, so I opted for the regular line.  The man in front of me told me go ahead of him since he had a full basket and was waiting for his wife who was in the bathroom, and I had only two items. I thanked him and, being kind myself, said that we should wait and see if she returned before he got to the cashier.  Then I noticed a clearing in the self-checkout row. My lucky day!

I left my line and walked a few yards to jump in that line.  My unlucky day.  The “clearing” was just a space left for regular shoppers to get through. The actual line, extending down the entire aisle, was longer than ever.  I returned to my place behind the kind man…at the same time a woman jumped ahead of me and signaled for her teenage son to bring their loaded cart from another aisle.

Referring to me, the son said to his mother, “Mom, she only has two things.  Let her go in front of us.”  Without looking at me, she answered, “She can go to the self-check line if she’s in a hurry.” The modeling done by that parent was distressing, and for a few seconds, I thought of saying that to the mean mom.  But God allowed for a different outcome.

The wife of the man in front of Mean Mom returned with their son, but instead of loading his groceries on the roller belt, he turned to me, speaking over Mean Mom and her son.  “You go ahead of us.  You were here first.”  (Which, technically, I was… until, that is, I wasn’t.)

“You are so kind,” I answered, moving ahead of his family. “Thank you so much” (which I repeated louder than I probably needed to after paying for my two bottles of salad dressing).

Why is it so many people are so self-absorbed that they ignore opportunities to help?  We know that doesn’t need to be the case.  Take my granddaughter, Mo, for example, who was driving to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, on her way to Wyoming.  With blizzard conditions late at night, she opted to drive slowly behind a semi-truck ahead of her, until, that is, a moose side-swiped her car.  When she pulled onto the shoulder of the road, she became stuck in the snow.

Soon, Mo saw a woman (who had pulled over ahead of her) running back to see if she was okay.  Then, two truckloads of Spanish-speaking men pulled in behind her.  When their trucks couldn’t pull her out, they crawled under her car to scoop out the snow.  A man hauling a trailer tried to tow her out, and even a cement truck driver came to her aid.  Nothing worked, but it was sacrificial Kindness in action. Fortunately, her uncle and his wife live only an hour away and were able to come to her aid.

Galatians 5:22 lists the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.  As 2025 gets underway, perhaps we all can make that our New Year’s goal.                                                                                                                                                          Yes, I think that should win out over Mean Mom’s way, everyday.