Starting a Chain Reaction of Kindness - iBelieve Truth: A Devotional for Women - March 25, 2025
“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Proverbs 15:1
As women, have we ever let how someone responded to or treated us affect how we treated others? Maybe our husband said something unkind or the checkout person at the grocery store was rude, causing us to reply to others in negative ways, too, letting our hurt emotions and reactions start dictating our attitudes and actions.
If we’re honest, most of us have done this to others at some point in our lives, passing our hurt on to some unsuspecting person. Often, spouses and family members bear the brunt of our pain.
In the classic show Touched by an Angel, episode titled “Monica’s Bad Day,” featuring Kathy Lee Gifford, viewers are shown two very different outcomes depending upon responses made out of kindness compared to those coming from anger.
This episode shows how we as people aren’t just influencing one person with a response but potentially countless people through just one careless or caring interaction.
The episode follows how one person’s harsh response to another person sets off a destructive chain reaction, passing harsh words that eventually lead to a tragic life-and-death situation.
It then shows what happens when the same person begins with a kind response, using words that set off a chain reaction of caring, thoughtful words, which leads to those involved choosing life rather than death. It’s a poignant illustration of how our actions influence others, one way or another.
We, too, can choose what type of chain reaction we set off in life. Although we may think a grumpy response is harmless, it’s wise for us to consider how its influence has the potential to cause a chain reaction of negativity.
In recent years, my heart has been working on catching my words and attitudes before they are able to snowball into an avalanche, purposely choosing to give the opposite response when facing a harsh or unkind word rather than reacting with emotions.
One day, I casually told one of my daughters how I’ve been choosing to react the opposite way when someone says or does something upsetting, so instead of reacting the way my emotions might trigger me to, I do the opposite.
Even if the person’s unkindness doesn’t seem to deserve a kind response because of what they’ve said or done, it’s beneficial for me to do so, helping me to grow and mature in my faith.
Weeks later, my daughter told me how she had taken my words seriously and was following my way of choosing kindness over reacting to the unkindness. In choosing to do so, our actions and words have a way of diffusing and deflating the wrong words and attitudes, and, instead, igniting a spark that spreads love and kindness.
As the Apostle Paul urges, “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up” (Romans 15:1-2).
In choosing to build others up, we are also building ourselves up, maturing in our faith. Like Philippians 2:3-4 encourages, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
When we do, we follow Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:12, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
Likewise, it’s good to regularly examine our fruit, what our life is producing, whether good or bad, because A” good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit” (Matthew 7:18).
If we find ourselves lacking, we can ask God to help us in tuning into the Holy Spirit’s leading in our lives, looking to Him to know how to answer and respond to others.
Jesus tells us that in various situations, we can depend on the Holy Spirit to lead us in what to say: “For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12:12).
Let’s pray:
Dear Father, Lead us today and every day to follow the Holy Spirit’s direction in how we interact with others. Help us in our own hurt to not strike out at others, but to respond in gentleness with kind words and actions. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/SDI Productions
Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV.
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