{"id":1644,"date":"2020-10-12T12:55:56","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T12:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=1644"},"modified":"2020-10-12T12:55:56","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T12:55:56","slug":"coffee-and-kindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/10\/coffee-and-kindness.html","title":{"rendered":"Coffee and Kindness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How far does a spilled cup of coffee go? A looong way! I was making my coffee this morning, as I always do. I make it with a French press, letting it steep for four minutes, and then have frothed milk with it. It had steeped and I poured it into my pre-heated mug but something happened and it tipped over. Oh my word! What a mess.<\/p>\n<p>I had spilled coffee in my oven, in my cabinets, on the counter and the floor. I had it in crevices, behind and under my counter appliances&#8230;on and on it went.. At least I like the smell of coffee! And nothing was ruined. I made another cup and sat down with my Bible to have some time with the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>But it made me think about kindness. A little bit goes a long way. There seems to be so little of it these days so it is even more important and more noticeable than ever. With us all wearing masks, it is hard to see a gentle smile or hear a &#8220;thank you&#8221;. So we have to make a greater effort.<\/p>\n<p>The world needs kindness right now. Our country needs kindness. My town. My family. We all need a little bit of kindness. <\/p>\n<p>It grieves me when I go to the grocery to hear mothers berating their children, belittling them for just being children. Or a husband being rude to his wife. Or vice versa. It doesn&#8217;t take much to be kind. <\/p>\n<p>Hold the door for another who is behind you. Help someone across the parking lot. I have noticed how so many older folks hobble or limp into the store revealing they are in pain. People carry burdens we know nothing about. Isn&#8217;t it nice to think we can add some sunshine to their day? It&#8217;s a worn out phrase but, &#8220;What would Jesus do?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Proverbs 19:22 says, &#8220;What is desirable in a man is his kindness..&#8221; People say, cleanliness is next to godliness.&#8221; I&#8217;m not sure who came up with that but I would say, &#8220;Kindness is next to godliness.&#8221; The Bible tells us that God&#8217;s, &#8220;lovingkindness is great toward us.&#8221; We have been recipients of God&#8217;s great lovingkindness&#8230;let&#8217;s go spread some around today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How far does a spilled cup of coffee go? A looong way! I was making my coffee this morning, as I always do. I make it with a French press, letting it steep for four minutes, and then have frothed milk with it. It had steeped and I poured it into my pre-heated mug but&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kindness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Coffee and Kindness - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kindess is needed.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coffee and Kindness - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kindess is needed.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/10\/coffee-and-kindness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-12T12:55:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Coffee and Kindness - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","description":"Kindess is needed.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Coffee and Kindness - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","og_description":"Kindess is needed.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/10\/coffee-and-kindness.html","og_site_name":"Safe Place with Ruth Graham","article_published_time":"2020-10-12T12:55:56+00:00","author":"Ruth Graham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/10\/coffee-and-kindness.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/10\/coffee-and-kindness.html","name":"Coffee and Kindness - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-10-12T12:55:56+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-12T12:55:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#\/schema\/person\/76d20e190c3b83823997a9f422b86975"},"description":"Kindess is needed.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/10\/coffee-and-kindness.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/10\/coffee-and-kindness.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2020\/10\/coffee-and-kindness.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Coffee and Kindness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/","name":"Safe Place with Ruth Graham","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Ruth Graham","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#\/schema\/person\/76d20e190c3b83823997a9f422b86975","name":"Ruth Graham","description":"\u201cTransparent\u201d is the word most people use to describe Ruth Graham. No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox &amp; Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham &amp; Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Her life Bible verse is John 1:16.","sameAs":["http:\/\/ruthgrahamministries.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/author\/rgraham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1647,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644\/revisions\/1647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}