I'm not always nice ...
As I write this, it is another rainy day, but it's also hair day. So, life is good.
But this morning, on the way to my appointment, I got thinking about whether or not I'm nice.
Random, right?! But nonetheless, it was on my mind and I had 20 minutes to drive so I did some mental digging.
I got thinking about times as a teen, young adult, employee, and even now as an older adult, when I've not been nice. And the times when I was mean, even the times when I was mean on purpose. 😮
What surprised me during this whole process was not necessary the subject, but it was the way I detached myself from the memories. It was as though I was watching a movie and taking mental notes from it. This surprised me because for too many years I was overly concerned about people thinking that I'm "nice".
I won't go into how I got to this point, but I wanted to share this with you. Because I don't know about you, but sometimes I think I'm not growing / learning / changing (in a certain area), and then WOW, God shares with me ways I have grown, in the way I needed to see it. Today, it was in movie-format on a rainy morning. 😜
And I even felt the Holy Spirit whisper that it's okay that I'm not always nice AND I need to look up the definition of nice to understand why.
Oh! And if that wasn't enough ... during this stream of thoughts and images, the word "kind" also came up because I've always thought I am a mostly kind person so I decided to look up the definitions of nice and kind and see how they're different.
Here's a quote from an that article that helped summarize the differences between nice & kind well for me:
"Being nice is most typically defined as: pleasant; agreeable; satisfactory. These are certainly acceptable behaviors, but lacking any sense of emotion; nor are they behaviors that would feel particularly special to those you deem close to.
Nice is more about manners, culture, and general expectations of decent behavior to others.
Being kind goes beyond nice in ways that are essential for happy and emotionally healthy relationships within marriage and family life.
Kindness is a deep-seated characteristic that allows us to put forth sympathy for others, and gives us the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes to understand their needs."
What does this all mean? For me, it reinforces my desire to be kind whenever possible. And that if I'm not feeling nice ... like when I'm having a bad day and nice words (or even a smile) are hard to find, it's OK and I'll do my best to keep my mouth shut. And hopefully remembering to ask for grace before saying a Hail Mary.
Can you relate? Maybe not to nice or kindness, but something else that's been revealed to you recently? And if there's something you'd like me to pray for, just let me know. I enjoy hearing from you.
Thank you! ☺️
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