Transcript

Nancy: Mary, just a few minutes ago as you and I were getting some makeup done in preparation for this video shoot, we had the sweetest experience of the very element we're going to be talking about today.

Mary Kassian: We did. We have a makeup lady that we just met this morning, and her name was Maria. She came in, and she was so kind. She was helping us with makeup, and we were chatting with her and finding out about her family.

Nancy: As we were getting ready to finish up, we said, "We'd like to bless you. We'd like to pray for you." And you said to her, "Is there any specific way we can pray for you?"

Mary: She mentioned that she had not been feeling well. She'd been in the hospital and had so many health struggles.

Nancy: And so you proceeded to pray for her.

Mary: Yes.

Nancy: You just prayed a beautiful prayer, asking God to minister health and grace to her. And when you finished praying . . .

Mary: I couldn't believe her reaction. She just burst into tears, and she started hugging us and just saying, "This is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me."

Nancy: She said, "This is such a gift, this is such a gift." And actually, after you left the room, I was still there, she said, "Please tell Mary that I had a headache until she prayed for me, and my headache is gone." She was so encouraged by what just seemed like a very simple everyday act of kindness.

And I thought, What a beautiful picture that is of the power of kindness extended in the name of Christ.

Mary: Yes, and just how overwhelmed by it all she was. You could tell that it was just so touching. "Nobody does this for me." To me it was flabbergasting because it was, like, everybody prays for me all the time.

Nancy: Right.

Mary: And just to be praying for someone who doesn't receive that and is so touched by it.

Nancy: It's just the reminder of the impact that we can have as women of God, as we are in this cold and unkind world, to reach out and extend kindness in the name of Christ to people. And that's what we come to today as the next element of biblical womanhood, and it's right in this text.

Let's read it again. Paul talks first to older women, and he says they're to be reverent in behavior. They're not to be slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good. They are to train the young women—so these are things that need to be passed on from one generation to the next. They're things that can be learned; they're to train the young women to love their husbands and children (we've talked about that) to be self-controlled, to be pure, to be working at home, and then just this four-letter word . . .

Mary: Little word—kind.

Nancy: To be kind (see Titus 2:3–5). And yet such a powerful impact it can have when we are kind. As we've been studying this, I think one of the things that has really stood out to me is that Christian kindness is a reflection of . . .

Mary: . . . the kindness of God.

Nancy: In fact, I've been memorizing Psalm 145 over the last few weeks, and twice in that passage it says that God is kind in all His works. And I'll tell you, this has really been working on me a lot. And to say that God is kind in everything that He does . . .

Mary: That's an overwhelming thought—the kindness of God. We think of God as being all-knowing, all-powerful.

Nancy: …