If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. —1 Corinthians 13:1
Without the quality of kindness, those “good” things we do for others amount to noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. And nobody can hear or feel our love for them over the racket we’re making.
Like Jesus’ friend Martha, we are sometimes distracted by many tasks (Luke 10:40), “worried and upset about many things” (v. 41). We become stretched thin and stirred up, bothered and brittle. And, all too often, unkind.
But I think there’s frequently something more than just stress behind the sharp tone or impatient attitude that sometimes spills over as unkindness in our relationships. It’s the lack of a “sound mind.” A self-controlled— sophron—mind.
When we’re not sophron, we’re apt to see only what frustrates us, so we begin to resent the very people God has called us to serve. We let ourselves get overwhelmed by our schedules and agendas rather than concentrating on the “one thing” Jesus said was “necessary” (Luke 10:42) —experiencing life in His presence.
Make it Personal
How can having a self-controlled mind make it easier to show kindness to the people around you?