May 21

Dishwashing Soap

Love is kind (1 Corinthians 13:4).

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13

Song: “Love Never Fails”

My daughter, Abby, was “cleaning” the kitchen floor with dishwashing soap. I stepped in to clean up her soapy, sudsy mess but my son crawled into the room. I felt angry about it all but remembered I could also choose loving kindness. There on my hands and knees in the mess I thanked Abby for her help but explained to her that I need her to ask for help washing the kitchen floor. Then, I sat her and her brother at the table with a snack while I sopped up the sudsy mess.

We always have choices about our feelings and words. Jesus shows us how to choose kindness in His interactions with a paralyzed man (Luke 5:18-25), an adulterous woman (John 8:1-11), and a thief (Luke 23:39-43). Jesus shows us loving kindness to people who made a mess of their lives because of their sin. Jesus reached down into their pit and gave each of them kindness that we might think they deserved the least. God redeems the messiest, most scarred among us. In His kindness, He loves us.

With that same love, Jesus calls us to reach out to the hurting, the sick, the sin stained—in their messes. We don’t wait for them to clean up their act. He wants us down on our knees in the middle of their mess to show and speak God’s love and kindness to save us from the mess we all can make of our lives.

Lord, Thank You for Your kindness to me. Please help me to love through kindness today. In Your name, amen.