WEEK 8 | Choose Kindness

Great teams need great teammates. A great teammate makes the team and the locker room better because they bring positive energy, and because they encourage, motivate, and build up their teammates (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

A great teammate is also kind. A great teammate is tough and competitive, but they are kind and make their teammates feel like they belong, valued, and safe.

Kindness is serving and blessing others so that you can contribute to their joy, peace, and happiness. Kindness is a lifestyle, a choice, and a daily practice.

BEING A GREAT TEAMMATE should be a goal of every athlete playing team sports and the goal of every parent for their young athletes.  One of the positive side effects of team sports is learning how to work with and compete with others.  This is a skill that will stick with you for the rest of your life.

Make it a goal to be the BEST teammate on the team.  Make it a goal to bring positive energy to every practice and every game.  Make it a goal to push your teammates so that they can be the best that they can be, and make it a goal to pull them along by encouraging them and being kind to them.

This can be hard, especially when you have teammates that don’t always treat you right. It is hard when your teammates aren’t being kind, motivating, or encouraging to you. It can be extremely hard when you feel like your teammates aren’t making you feel like you belong, or when they don’t include you or share the ball with you.

But know who you want to be and why, and stick to your core value system no matter what is going on around you, and you will be rewarded.

In Luke, Jesus told a local lawyer the story of a man who was attacked by robbers on his way to a town called Jericho. The robbers beat the man, took his clothes, and left him there half-dead. A priest was walking by and saw the man half-dead and hurting. Instead of stopping to help the man, the priest passed him on the other side of the road. Another man, a Levite, did the same. Levites were descendants of the Tribe of Levi. They served different roles in the churches and temples, so like a priest, you would think that they would help a man in need. 

Later, a Samaritan man walked by and felt sorry for the man who was beaten. The Samaritan cleaned up and bandaged his wounds and took him to an inn and took care of him.

Jesus asked the lawyer, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The lawyer replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Choosing kindness is not always easy. Some people are just mean, angry, and hateful. Some teammates don’t like us and don’t want to play with us. That is okay. You can only control what you can control.

In the Old Testament, Joseph was not treated very kindly at all by his brothers. They sold him into slavery. But Joseph trusted God and his plan, and he eventually became the second-highest person in all of Egypt. When he later found his brothers, he could have done anything to him, but he chose to be kind and help them.

Never let loyalty and kindness leave you. Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation. Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do,  and he will show you which path to take (Proverbs 3:3-6).

Trusting God will always lead you down the best path. When you are confident in who God made you to be, you can trust Him with your life.

Choosing kindness is not always the easiest or the most popular choice to make, but the Bible promises it will always lead you to the best outcome.

THIS WEEK

1 - What is one time when being kind has helped you, helped someone else, or made you feel better about yourself or life?

2 - When is it easiest to choose kindness?

3 - When is choosing kindness hard?

4 - When being kind is hard, what can you do or what Bible verse can you lean on to overcome that barrier and choose kindness?

5 BIBLE VERSES ABOUT BEING KIND

1 - Never let loyalty and kindness leave you. Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart. Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation. Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do,  and he will show you which path to take
- Proverbs 3:3-6

2 - But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
- Luke 6:35

3 - Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
- Colossians 3:12-13

4 - So then, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to everyone.
- Galatians 6:10 

5 - Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
- 1 Peter 3:8-9

For a Google doc version of this devo, click here: Week 8 | Choose Kindness