Building the Kingdom of God Through Kindness

As a young woman growing up in the church, I had probably listened to every lesson and talk on kindness and loving your neighbor. I honestly didn’t think there was anything else to learn about this topic. Be nice and helpful when you can, don’t contribute to gossip, and don’t be mean, that’s it, right? Well, one lesson from a young women’s leader changed my perspective and quite frankly changed my life.

She quoted Joseph B Wirthlin’s 2005 conference talk entitled “The Virtue of Kindness”.

“If you are criticizing others, you weakening the Church. If you are building others, you are building the Kingdom of God. As Heavenly Father is kind, we also should be kind to others.”

Teenage Keriann misunderstood just enough to think every time she thought something nice about someone and chose not to share it, she was weakening the Kingdom of God. Even though that wasn’t quite the spirit of the lesson, my perspective on how I view others and my willingness to build them up completely changed.

I started approaching complete strangers because I thought their hair was pretty or I liked their shoes. My friends noticed that my optimism and eagerness to celebrate others increased tenfold. They even started calling me Bubbles because I was so happy and willing to find the good in life.

This story isn’t to say we need to completely alter our lives and compliment strangers, but to show that through simple things, we can build the Kingdom of God.

I encourage each of you to take those moments to compliment others and encourage those around you. Take a few minutes to talk to the new girl in the office and learn about her interests, comment something nice on a friend’s Instagram post, tell the check out girl at the grocery store her eyelashes look great.

I know from the bottom of my heart, that when we take the time to foster the wonderful people around us, we are building the Kingdom of God.

Kerriann Jones
Viewpoint Neighborhood
Primary Teacher