For Whom Are We Doing Our Acts of Kindness?

When we perform acts of kindness toward others for whom are we doing the act of kindness? What are we expecting to happen as a result of our act of kindness?

I ask these questions because we may find our acts of kindness are not received with a level of enthusiasm and appreciation we were expecting. This can be disappointing, especially if we were looking for the enthusiastic joy and gratitude of the recipient as a subtle form of reward for our kind action.

Many of us who have a bit of life experience under our belts have discovered there may be times when genuine acts of kindness are met with actual indifference or perhaps even scorn. Believe it or not this can happen. It is a strange and surprising response the first few times it is encountered. It can be very disappointing.

And it may cause us to think, “Well, that’s it! Forget it! I’m not helping anyone or being kind to anyone again! I do these nice things and no one even appreciates it. Phooey on everyone! You are all on your own from now on you ungrateful punks!!!”

[This is usually said while shaking a fist in the air.]

It is helpful for us to understand our acts of kindness to be a loving response to God’s goodness toward us. Let the kindness be an act of worship and service that honors God, doing it for His sake. Allow the obedience to God to be its own reward.

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Jesus – Matthew 6:1-4