Kindness Actually…

Lately, I have been doing profound introspection about kindness. I had written in the past several times that kindness should be altruistic. Altruism is the belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others. Also, I had written that when we do an act of kindness we should not like to expect anything in return. Yes, that is still my intention. Come to think of it, when we do the opposite it would be engaging in bribery.

However, again just lately, I realized that kindness actually is… a boomerang. Here are at least 28 verses about reaping what you sow from the Holy Bible.

Galatians 6:7

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

Galatians 6:8

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

John 4:38: “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

1 Corinthians 9:11: If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

Galatians 6:9: Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

John 4:37: For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’

2 Corinthians 9:6: Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Psalm 126:5: Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.

Hosea 10:12: Sow with a view to righteousness, Reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord. Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.

Isaiah 37:30: “Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

Hosea 8:7: For they sow the wind. And they reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; It yields no grain. Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.

Job 4:8: “According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity. And those who sow trouble harvest it.”

Matthew 25:24: And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.

Luke 19:21: [F] or I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man; you take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow.’

Ecclesiastes 11:4: He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap.

Proverbs 22:8: He who sows iniquity will reap vanity, and the rod of his fury will perish.

Luke 19:22: He *said to him, ‘By your own words I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow?

Ecclesiastes 11:6: Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.

Micah 6:15: “You will sow but you will not reap. You will tread the olive but will not anoint yourself with oil; And the grapes, but you will not drink wine.

1 Corinthians 15:36: You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies;

1 Corinthians 15:37: [A]nd that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

Proverbs 11:18: The wicked earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness gets a true reward.

Leviticus 25:11: You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its after-growth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines.

Leviticus 25:22: When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.

James 3:18: And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

2 Corinthians 9:10: Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness;

Luke 12:24: Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!

Why did I say that kindness actually is a boomerang? Well, in the past months I invested on a project; and I was pleased with the result, and I treasured the joy of the people that is a part of the project, and the smiles on their faces were priceless. Furthermore, on my birthday, I was extremely elated. I hesitated a little bit on calling it just a surprise because that would be an understatement.

As I celebrate my tenth year with The Bicol Mail, I remember the article I wrote entitled, The Choir of Birds, which my beloved departed sister Maria Victoria absolutely loved. In a nutshell, I heard the the chirping, cooing, and singing of the birds at the Plaza Quince Martires in the City Center. Now, I hear them at home when the trees that we planted a year after I started writing for the newspaper are now fully grown. May you be inspired by The Holy Spirit and God bless!