"I decided..."

Being welcomed home with love and hugs fills a grateful heart to overflowing. Words can’t describe, reason stares in silence, and wonder won’t let go. Heaven on earth becomes a reality and parents rejoice when there is love at home.

     One of our granddaughters recently surprised everyone. Suddenly, without being asked, she began helping her mother, started cleaning up around the house, and even stopped teasing her brothers and sister. When I thanked her for fixing my wife and I dinner, she replied “I decided to be kind.” Her mother overheard her comment and said, “It’s true.”

     I thought to myself, Can changing your personality be so easy? Well, I do know you must first start by deciding to change. Deciding to be kind is one of the best decisions you will ever make. Being kind is good for you and for everyone around you. Being kind is how you express love.

     Although being kind doesn’t mean you are a loving person, it’s a good way to become one. A truly loving person has the greater virtue of charity. The biblical New Testament Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

   3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

   4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

   5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

   6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

   7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

   8 Charity never faileth   [1 Corinthians 13]

     As a father, let’s teach our children to be kind with words and by example. Then go on from there and teach them charity…that love may abound in our heart and home.

[This blog represents my personal views and is not an official site of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.]

Be Kind | by Elder Robert C. Oaks

Be Kind | by LDS Gospel Media

“Remember This: Kindness Begins With Me” | by Sister Mary N Cook

Kindness Begins With Me  | LDS Children’s Songbook