Truth

Defining Love, Part 2

/ Ken Blanchard

Welcome to Part 2 of my continuing discussion on love! The second element of love according to Henry Drummond is Kindness. In The Greatest Thing in the World, he writes:

 

“Love as kindness is active. Kindness seeks to be useful. It not only seizes on opportunities for doing good, but also searches for them.”

A lot of people are writing about kindness these days. God knows we need a kinder world where people search for opportunities to do good, rather than getting into win/lose battles about who’s right and who’s wrong. What a difference it would make if people were constantly looking for ways to do good. I’m sure many of you know this quotation that is generally credited to a Stephen Grellet, a French-born Quaker missionary:

“I expect to pass through this world but once; any good, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

That gets us back to the “precious present.” Be kind when? Now! Today!

Drummond’s third element of love is Generosity

“Love as generosity does not envy the good fortune or accomplishments of others. If we love our neighbors, we will be so far from envying them and what they possess or accomplish that we will share in and rejoice at these things. The prosperity of those to whom we wish well can never grieve us.”

Here we’re talking about generosity of spirit—showing no envy toward others. When most people hear the word generosity, they think you’re talking about giving away money. But in the Bible, before it mentions sharing your treasure, it talks about sharing your time and talent. In other words, if you are volunteering to help others, that shows a generosity of spirit.

In the book The Generosity Factor which I coauthored with the late S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A, we added a fourth aspect of generosity: touch. By touch, we meant reaching out to encourage others. Truett lived his life by the quotation “Who needs encouragement? Everyone!” Isn’t that the truth!

So today, with a spirit of kindness and generosity, look for opportunities to do good for others by sharing your time, talent, treasure, or touch. Life is not about being served, but serving others. That is love in action.

Your Words and Actions Matter

/ Ken Blanchard

We’ve all seen the image of the ripples created when a pebble is tossed into a pool of still water. The ripples radiate out in ever bigger circles—all from that tiny pebble.

In a sense we’re all like that pebble. Our words and actions—whether positive or negative—ripple out and impact the world around us.

I was reminded of this after Sunday night’s massacre at the Jason Aldean concert in Las Vegas—the deadliest mass shooting in US history. The shock, fear, and anguish of that event rippled across social media and regular news channels.

Then came the heroes—ordinary people covering others with their own bodies, stopping the bleeding with their own shirts, carrying the wounded to paramedics, and offering their own vehicles to rush the injured to hospitals. Long lines of people wrapped around those hospitals, waiting to donate blood.

The hope and humanity of these selfless actions also rippled across media channels, inspiring a continuous outpouring of compassion and support.

The truth is, our words and actions affect many more people than we often realize. In a study on the impact of cooperative behavior, James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis found that each time a person acts for the public good, that action is tripled by others who are influenced to contribute as a result. In other words, good deeds have a cascading effect on humanity.

So, do good and love others. You make more of a difference than you know.