So I'm reading a book

Actually, I'm currently reading three books, but I'm talking about The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges. I've been reading this book for way too long and hopefully I'll be able to finish it up in the next few weeks.

I wanted to talk about the most recent chapter I've read. It discusses kindness and goodness. The two are intertwined and I wanted to give you the definition that Bridges gives.

"Kindness is a sincere desire for the happiness of others. Goodness is the activity calculated to advance that happiness."

This is the foundation that I have tried to build my friendships on. If you call me friend, I hope that you've seen evidence of that. You can be a friend to somebody without being good to them. Your friends are people who you share common goals with and have similar interests. There's no "requirement" that you have to be good to them. And when we think about it, there are lots of people who we consider friends, but we aren't good to them. We talk to them and do things with them and put up with them, but we aren't good to them. And like I said, there's no obligation to be good to them. But who better to show the love of Christ than the people important enough to you to be considered a friend?

But you can't just contain this stuff to your friendships. You've got to show it and live it all the time. Whether it's being good and kind to your co-workers, or your family (even the members who are hard to love), or even strangers, we've got to learn to let the love of God flow through us and out of us and into others. I'm certainly making no statments about how easy it is do this. Rather, I'm saying that we have to attempt to do this because God commands it.

Thoughts?