Kindness: Is it a Weakness or Strength

I'm a member of Goodreads, which is a social networking site for authors and readers who adore books, much like Shelfari. One of my Goodreads friends had the following quote on his page:

"…all too often kindness is seen as a weakness. I like kind people. I like hanging out with kind, generous, awesome people. That’s not a weakness to me, it’s a strength." ~ Nathan Fillion

It gave me pause for thought.

One of the gentlest, kindest men I know is often considered weak, as Nathan Fillion indicates others might suppose. But when people look at these attributes and consider them weaknesses they are sorely mistaken. For there is no doubt our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was the kindest and gentlest man ever to have lived on the earth. He gathered the children, the sick and afflicted and the repentant unto Him. And with godly love He bestowed blessings, healings and forgiveness to all who sought Him. He hoarded not His priesthood but exercised it with a generous spirit. He loved all whose paths He crossed, and all those He did not.

And yet strength was called for:

• When He cleansed the temple;
• When He suffered the Atonement in the Garden of Gethsemane;
• When He defended Himself with dignity and grace to the Kangaroo Court of Pharisees and Saducees; even,
  
• When He hung on the cross until every last purpose of His mortal mission was fulfilled.
  

Then and only then, did the God of heaven and earth give up the ghost. You see, Jesus Christ knew when to fight and when to succumb. We will never be asked to sacrifice ourselves in such a way. But our Savior is our Exemplar in every possible way and for every possible reason.

Kindness is not equated with weakness but is, instead, a tremendous strength to see a child of God in the eyes of every human being on the face of the earth. Gentleness is the ability to exude a godly attribute in the face of overwhelming obstacles. Kindness heals where anger destroys. Gentleness soothes where abuse obliterates.

Understanding this makes me realize that I have much work to do in this direction. I need to be a much kinder, gentler person. I simply must emulate my Savior and my kinder, gentler friends.