{"id":725,"date":"2021-05-19T09:40:10","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T13:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=725"},"modified":"2021-05-19T09:40:10","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T13:40:10","slug":"be-nice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/19\/be-nice\/","title":{"rendered":"Be Nice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rachel Pine was flying from Los Angeles to New York City.  She noticed that the flight crew looked unusually harried.

When the flight attendant came by to see if she had fastened her seatbelt, Rachel reached into her package of Fig Newtons.

\u201cWould you like one?\u201d she asked.

The flight attendant gratefully received the snack.  Rachel recalls that she almost seemed on the verge of tears.

A few minutes later the attendant returned.  She said to Rachel:  \u201cYou have no idea what our last flight was like.  If just one passenger had been like you, it would have been bearable.\u201d

\u201cAnd by the way,\u201d she mentioned to Rachel, \u201cthere\u2019s an open seat in first class.  Would you like to have it?\u201d

Such is the power of one Fig Newton.  Actually, such is the power of kindness – of choosing to be nice.

In their slim volume The Power of Nice<\/em>, Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval acknowledge that \u201cnice has an image problem.  Nice gets no respect.  To be labeled \u2018nice\u2019 usually means the other person has little else positive to say about you\u2026 Let us be clear:  Nice is not na\u00efve\u2026 In fact, we would argue that nice is the toughest four-letter word you\u2019ll ever hear.\u201d

Thaler and Koval cite statistics that nice people enjoy longer and stronger relationships.  Studies also confirm that for every 2% positive uptick in a company\u2019s service climate, there is a 1% increase in revenue.

Research demonstrates that nice people live longer (despite their apparent fondness for Fig Newtons). 

And author Malcom Gladwell cites a study that correlates the niceness of physicians with a lowered likelihood of being sued.  Doctors who have never been sued turn out to be those who spend an average of three minutes longer with each patient, compared to doctors who have been sued twice or more.  People tend not to want to drag into court people who have been nice to them.

The apostle Paul writes:  \u201cLet your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.\u201d (Colossians 4:6)

In other words, choose to be kind.  Choose to be gracious. 

For goodness\u2019 sake and God\u2019s sake, be nice.<\/em>

You may not end up sitting in first class.  But you may be the one person who turns somebody else\u2019s lousy day into a hopeful one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel Pine was flying from Los Angeles to New York City.  She noticed that the flight crew looked unusually harried. When the flight attendant came by to see if she had fastened her seatbelt, Rachel reached into her package of Fig Newtons. \u201cWould you like one?\u201d she asked. The flight attendant gratefully received the snack.  Rachel recalls that she almost seemed… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[241],"class_list":["post-725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-kindness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":727,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions\/727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}