An Act of Kindness

By:

Emily Miller

We all have the ability to touch someone's life each and every single day. At the time, we may not even realize how our actions affect another person. We may never even see their effects at all.

About a week before Christmas, I spent a few days in the hospital with a blood clot in my right arm. After a procedure and infusions of heparin, the blood clot dissipated and I was allowed to go home on blood thinners. As I am writing this, I am feeling fine although my arms are still a bit sore and achy from being bruised from the treatments they gave me.

There are three things you should know about me before I continue. I have (or had, after being poked so many times during my hospital stay I am not so sure) a bad needle phobia, I hate doctors, and I hate hospitals. Part of this may or may not stem from when I was about eight years old watching my mother go through her first round of cancer treatments. I remember seeing her sick in the hospital, and thinking to myself doctors must not be very good people if they were not able to just magically make my mom better again so she could come home. I suppose that visual image and thought process, combining with all the medical issues I have had since then, has led to my deep distrust of anyone and anything related to the medical profession.

While I was there, I realized in the long run that doctors and nurses really are not bad people, and they really do care about the patents they are treating.

Several nurses were angels in disguise during my stay. I will never forget two nurses in particular, one in the ER and the other at the hospital itself, who held my hand and gently talked to me, calming me down when it all became too much for me and I started to become overly anxious and break down crying.

I will never forget the loving kindness these two nurses showed me. It has made me more convicted to treat doctors and nurses with more respect in general, knowing that they truly care about the patents they treat and are doing everything in their power to help them.

It just goes to show, that in the end all it takes is a loving act of kindness by someone to leave a lasting impact.

Christ does the same thing for us. When we are down, anxious, or afraid, He is there to love us, hold our hands and comfort us when we are afraid.

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.

-John 13:34

We may see situations each and every single day where we can also extend this same loving kindness to another person who may need it. You may just end up being the little extra encouragement that certain person needs to help them get through the day.

So I challenge you from this day forward look for little ways you can show a little extra love to the people in your life.

Blessings,

Emily