Psalm 145:17
The Lord is righteous in everything he does; 
he is filled with kindness. (NLT)

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I have a friend whose personal mission is to speak the kind truth. This mirrors the very heart of God as this verse makes plain. 

God is righteous. He always does what is right, just, and fair. He leads us toward the same disposition. The longer we walk with him, the more we seek to honor him and serve others, the more we become like him in declaring the high value of right living. 

God is kind. Again, kindness is not the same thing as niceness. Sometimes, the kindest words are the hardest to swallow. Sometimes, the kindest actions wound the deepest. 

I found myself a little too ticked off for my own good at one point this week. Examining evidence at hand, I drew a firm conclusion, the right conclusion, but unlike my friend, I did not respond with the kind truth. I settled for truth alone. Others were wounded. 

It is possible to be right and wrong at the same time. 

Unkind truth is never fully beneficial. 

Choose the hard right thing. Say the hard right thing. Apply the hard right thing. But don’t be harder than necessary. Don’t be harder than what is helpful. Wrap every hard choice, word, and action in kindness. This is what God does. We become godly by imitating him. 

We honor God and serve others when they can rightly anticipate kindness from us. 

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I will live in such a manner that others may anticipate kindness from me.

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Our Father, please protect me from myself. Keep me from unkind truth. Empower me instead to provide the blessing of kind truth in my lead actions and responses. May others expect truth from me in all things at all times. May that truth ever and always come wrapped in kindness. Make my heart more like yours. Amen.