developing kindness as a spiritual discipline

WORST- Kindness is not an attribute that comes naturally to me. Protecting of the weak? Yes. Compassion to those who struggle? Check. Moving from a place of kindness? Not at all. Slowly, let me add an adjective there, very slowly I am trying to develop an innate sense of kindness. I tend to move more from an innate sense of judgment and I am learning that judgment and kindness are not good friends.

The edge of the prophetic, for me, needs to be tempered with kindness. L gets kindness. I know very few people who do.

Comments

[Arlene]

The word "judgment" has such a bad rap! Cannot judgment be kind??? Don't we judge other's actions so we know how to appropriately respond?? We all need to make those calls on what we see, hear and do. Don't we need to judge where our kindness is most needed?

[Cotswold Quaker]

its important to form judgements. Thats what Quakers do! I think what I try to do is avoid condemnation.

[Anj]

Thanks Arlene and Cotswold Quaker - Condemnation might be a better word for the place I move from. If I can discern rightly, and speak to that, without belittling or making "unegual" than I could move in kindness. I need to develop this further, and your comments have really helped.