INTENTION: idea that you plan (or mean) to carry out.
ACTION: something actually done or performed
When it comes to being kind to others, even if it is in relatively small matters, it is in your actions, and not simply your intentions, that the highest value is created.
You can mean well, and have kindly intentions, but if these intentions are never demonstrated, they will be worth less than any actual performed kindness.
Performed kindness has such a powerful positive value, that even the smallest act of kindness has the potential to light up someone’s day.
Getting Personal
Have you ever intended to take a kind action to someone, but for whatever reason you didn’t follow through on that intention? Give an example.
If you had followed through on your intentions, what benefits for you and the other do you think would have been experienced?
“Don’t just think, do.” (Horace. ancient Roman poet)
“As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.” (Andrew Carnegie, American industrialist, business leader)
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” (William Arthur Ward, American motivational writer)
….Top of post image, Acts of Kindness, from dreamstime.com