From Patience to Kindness

Happy President's Day to you all!

Today we talked about Patience. We explored some of the scriptures we studied last week about why patience is important and how only with patience can we see God's miracles revealed.

Activity

Psalm 40:1-9
Lamentations 3:17-25
Ecclesiastes 3:1-9
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Isaiah 40:38-31

Then to do some extra exploring (to taste & see that the Lord is good), we did some writing practice. We took one of the scriptures listed and copied them. The act of writing scripture is a way of taking ownership of it, to slow down and appreciate what it is saying and how it speaks to our lives. Before the printing press, when monks would scribe the Bible by hand, they would look back at their original document after each letter to ensure they would not make any errors. Think of writing the Bible like that each time. Copying scripture can be a cool spiritual discipline.

After we wrote, we took the scripture we copied and wrote a poem about it. If you're thinking, oh man, I could never write poetry, start with just writing metaphors.
"Patience is..." and see where you go.


Now for homework:
For this coming week, we'll be studying Kindness.
Use these scriptures to further explore the topic of Kindness. If one in particular speaks to you more than the others, or if you want to spend more time on one than the others, do it. These are merely a starting point; a place for you to start thinking through God’s plan for kindness and the Spirit’s role in inspiring that Kindness. If you can think of other scripture, please use it in your study and bring it to our Monday night meeting. Also, take time to tangibly explore kindness. What exemplifies kindness for you? How can you share in it with the group?


Mark 5:25-34/1 Corinthians 13:4
John 4:1-26/Romans 2:4
Luke 7:36-50/2 Corinthians 6:3-10
Matthew 19:13-15/Acts 4:8-10
Luke 10:25-37/Jeremiah 9:24
Proverbs 11:16/Proverbs 14:31
Romans 11:22/Ephesians 4:31-32/Colossians 3:12-13


1. What is kindness? What is a one sentence definition of kindness?
2. Why is kindness important?
3. How did Christ exemplify kindness?
4. What is God’s vision for our kindness?
5. What prevents us from exhibiting kindness?
6. How does the world’s view of kindness differ from our view of kindness?
7. How can we mature in our kindness towards others? What would that next level of kindness look like?