Some people are in a position to do compassionate voluntary work to help people in need and many more can support charity fundraising events.  Compassion has, however, a sister – kindness.  And the opportunities of being kind are with us almost daily.  Kindness involves friendliness, gentleness and imagination.

A great deal of unkindness is the result of thoughtlessness.  We can all remember having hurt someone by saying the wrong thing or forgetting to help them; and then when we realised it we could only say, “I just never thought”.  But if we try to imagine ourselves in another person’s place we shall find many opportunities of helping them.  A smile, a word of encouragement, a sympathetic enquiry, a visit or a letter to someone who lives a lonely life, helping a sick neighbour – these things can make a difference to someone’s whole day.

When a professing Christian is deliberately unkind, it is unmistakeable evidence that his or her relationship with God is all wrong or is non-existent, because God himself is good to everyone without distinction.  That is why unkindness on the part of Christians wins a bad name not only for themselves, but also for the Christian religion which they profess.