‘Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart.’
Proverbs 3:3 NLT
How do you remember things you have to do? I never do just one thing so I have various methods; sometimes I use sticky notes, a reminder on my phone or I write on my hand. But the aim is that I have to remember it – even though I have to repeatedly say it out loud till I have it done.
That’s how I see this verse here. Wouldn’t it be lovely if I could just tie it around my neck and write them deep within my heart literally? That’d be very easy. But again, the aim is to remember. In this case, you have to remember to ‘never let loyalty and kindness leave you’ because it isn’t just a word, it’s a lifestyle.
How? Well practice makes progress and permanent.
Daily remind yourself what it means to be loyal and kind. If you’re not sure, I got you. Well actually the Bible got you. They’re various examples of people being loyal and kind in the Bible. Let me give you a few so you can reflect on them and keep in your memory.
2 Timothy 2:13
‘If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.’
He is Christ Jesus – our greatest role model. Even if we’re faithless, He’s faithful. This lets us know that even if people let you down, you shouldn’t endeavor to let them down. It’s ‘do to others what you want them to do to you’, not ‘do to others what they did to you.’
Another great example is in Ruth 1:16,
‘… Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.’
Who doesn’t just love Ruth? It’s her selflessness and loyalty that makes her such a female icon in the Bible. She made the choice to stay even when things were getting hard with such determination. Let that be you. Even in adversity, stay true to your vows and promises. It’ll pay off, I promise. Even in Ruth’s story, Jesus comes from the her bloodline. She gave birth to Obed whose son was Jesse, whose son was David. You can read about the descendants of Ruth and Boaz in Matthew 1:1-17.
Those are great examples of loyalty and here are some great examples of kindness.
Luke 19:1-9
I can’t talk about kindness without talking about Jesus. In this story here, Jesus showed his overflowing kindness to man considered to be a sinner. You see Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and they didn’t like men like that back in the day because a lot of them were dishonest and fraudulent. But Jesus ignored the beady eyes and cricket gossip and said, ‘Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.’ If I was Zacchaeus, I’d be so shocked, I’d fall off the tree! Zacchaeus ended up giving half of his goods to the poor, and returning all that he had wrongfully taken by fourfold! Imagine that! He took 10 dollars and gave back 40 dollars! But he wouldn’t have done it if Jesus hadn’t been kind to him.
Luke 10:30-37
I heard about the Good Samaritan a long time ago and one thing I appreciated so much about the story was how far he went to help him. Sometimes, I just consider being kind as not being mean but it’s not the same thing. He didn’t just bandage him and leave him there to heal and continue his journey; no, he took him all the way to an inn on his own animal. He went the extra mile and that’s what makes him such a great model of kindness.
I hope these stories have given you a perspective of loyalty and kindness. Truly, they both have to be written in your heart.
Prayer:
In Jesus Name, Lord Jesus thank you for being such a great model to me. I thank you for the footsteps you left behind for me to follow. I pray that I show kindness to everyone regardless of who they are, how they look or where they’re from, just like you did. I pray that I remain faithful and loyal to all my vows, promises and commitments just like you did. I pray that loyalty and kindness will never leave me. Help to daily show them to people around me. Thank you for Your Word that holds such great examples for me to emulate and put into action. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.
Psalm 3:5