People Shape You: A Reflection

This week in chapel, an amazing speaker (okay fine, it was Kinley) discussed how people influence each other. She shared her own experiences.

She said, “Hang out with kind people, become a kind person.”

I couldn’t agree more. When I lived in Nevada, I had a hard time finding good influences. I let negativity get the better of me. But once I met kind people who introduced me to Jesus, my whole life shifted. I started healing and growing into who God made me to be.

Kinley gave this super visual example—imagine a moldy strawberry. If you touch it to a fresh one, the mold spreads. That’s what it’s like when we’re influenced by negativity—it rubs off on us before we even realize it.

Kinley then shared her own personal experience, when a bad influence changed her for the worse. But once she found better influencers in her life, she didn’t feel like an outcast any longer, and she truly felt the love of Jesus. God brought those great friends into her life.

She outlined two qualities of a good friend: loyalty and unconditional kindness. Unconditional kindness means being kind no matter what. Of course, being kind and being nice are not the same thing. Being nice is just saying what someone wants to hear or flattering someone. Being kind is doing or saying the right thing.

Kinley did such an amazing job. She shared something that really needed to be heard by a lot of the students at our school. Pastor Paris told the crowd that he knew the message was for some of the people in our middle school. Kinley then invited the leadership team to pray for people who were struggling with negative influences in their lives. It was such a moving moment.

Have you ever experienced a time when someone’s unconditional kindness totally changed your outlook? Or maybe you’ve been the one who made a difference in someone else’s life?
Write a comment below—I’d love to hear your story!