“Hey Buddy…I’m sorry to point it out but your zipper is down. I know that’s awkward but I figured better me than your blind date. Or even worse, discovering it yourself at the end of the night.”
Another quick example for those who’ve seen it – consider the end fate of “Old Yeller”
And the supreme example of type 2 kindness, God the Father subjecting Christ to the weight of the sins of the world.
Time,
Responsibility,
Courage, and
Sacrifice.
The presence of these traits elevates a benevolent act into something of far more value. They give an act towards another person meaningful FUNCTIONALITY as it serves that individual’s mental, physical and spiritual well-being. Because Kindness, genuine Kindness in its Virtuous Form is functional. It’s productive. Kindness is far more a commitment to provide another what is needed for their ultimate potential than it is merely satisfying that person’s desires.
Imagine being engaged in wheat and tare warfare where the wheat represents kindness. What tactics might the enemy use to most effectively corrupt fields of kindness.
Taking this approach, you can almost imagine the devil brainstorming the ideal counter to kindness. As if he asked himself, “If kindness was wheat…what would be its tare?”
With the high aim to achieve, if possible, of convincing mankind to invert the virtue, so that, over time, the tare takes on the title of kindness and the wheat is termed the counterfeit.
It is to games of imitation of which the enemy finds us most vulnerable. And no more so than in the realm of words. For this reason I find it no coincidence that in scripture a seed is often used metaphorically to represent the word.
So that God may very well have pulled us all aside before mortality and said something to the effect of, “You have no idea what a pain in the butt it is going to be to get you from Point A to Point B. I’ve got a whole village of your brothers and sisters who have agreed to sacrifice their innocence so that they can blow off the frustration that is required to help CHANGE you. So…you’d best figure out how to forgive real fast.
And this makes sense because the Atonement, a principle already part of this plan, is God granting us forgiveness. And to personally understand how that process works, how the process cleanses one from their mistakes, an individual would have to understand psychologically how forgiveness works, applying it to a one who had wronged them, to then fully believe that forgiveness could actually work on them. Otherwise, you could tell someone who couldn’t conceive the power of forgiveness that they themselves had been forgiven through the atonement. But in that persons mind they’d be thinking “I’m forgiven. I don’t buy it.” Because to them the concept of forgiveness is impossible. To them, there is no psychological power strong enough to change the past.
The word, WHY, in question form, is a request for purpose or meaning.
Which is interesting because WHY questions often become apparent during times of significant strife. And they continue until the protagonist of the tale has fully undergone a change of character. Take note, that this phenomenon of WHY’s occurring in combination with a subject’s change of character occurs not just in fictional lore, BUT ALSO IN REAL LIFE.
Christ is what we hope to someday be like, at least more than we are at this moment. He is the Christian archetype. His experiences, knowledge and spirit are what we hope to replicate in our own lives. And through the art and intricacy of symbolism, His acts have become indicators by which we recognize people who are like Him. Likewise, the appearance of similar acts in our own lives are how we confirm that we, individually, are on the path He intends for us.
Audrey Baggaley delivers a talk to a church audience. In it she relates her struggles with depression and anxiety. She wisely divines purpose from what God HAS and HAS NOT needed her to experience.
Audrey, a recent high school graduate, talks about her middle and high school experience while dealing with consistent episodes of depression and anxiety. She gives her reasoning for why it took some time before she told her parents. She also […]
An interview with Paul Reynolds – a story of emerging from the ashes of family tragedy through faith in God, appreciation for experience, and the influence of loved ones.
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