And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ – Eph 4:32
I had a job once working at a restaurant. My boss decided it was his job to go out of his way to be mean to me. He’d try to get me to drop plates of food and mess up. Each day, I dreaded going to work because of him. He was never friendly to me, and always seemed to have a grudge against me, for no reason that I could understand.
Every day at work, I challenged myself to do what this verse said. I didn’t react, or respond to him in anger. I wasn’t mean back to him. I was always kind even though he was so mean to me. It didn’t happen immediately, but eventually, my boss stopped giving me such a hard time.
Sometimes the best response to someone who isn’t nice is to do what this verse says. Be kind to those who aren’t nice to you, forgive them when they don’t treat you right. You can do this because God did the same thing to you. He forgave you even when you didn’t deserve it. So even when it’s hard to treat others with kindness, it’s the right thing to do in light of what God did for you.
