'How excellent is thy loving-kindness,
O God! therefore
 the children of men put their trust
under the shadow of thy wings.'

Kindness is to treat others as God has shown kindness towards us, with great compassion and generosity.  In the King James version kindness is translated as 'meekness'.  Meekness is where humility is displayed rather than the proud egoism.

Whenever kindness has been shown towards me I have felt the love of God enfold me like a warm blanket.  Often a giver has given at cost to themselves, without any reason other than their love and generosity, leaving me feeling  loved and nurtured.

My father who died last year told me stories of kindnesses shown to him when he had been taken a prisoner of war in Greece. In the telling of the tales I could see that the kindness shown to him had been like the blossoms of a flower that had left a pollen stain on him that would never fade.  

He told me that after being captured in Greece they were marched hungry, tired and if they were unable to march they would be shot.   On  passing vineyards there were young girls and women distributing packets of raisins to every prisoner who marched by. He thought they must have given away the bulk of their harvest.  The countless stories of bravery and humanity at its best were ingrained in him and became the  mark of the man.  Yet none is more appealing than the story he tells  of when he and a German guard went to fetch water.

'We went down with the water wagon into Corinth to a spot where there was a stream of water gushing out of a low vertical face of rock.  It was emerging with some force through a hole of about  four inches diameter, from a point about two feet six inches above the ground.  It looked like a very ancient place and I took it to be the lower Peirene spring: the upper Peirene spring being in Acrocorinth.  Beside the spring was a row of cottages, rather like Highland cottages, and after we had filled the tank and water bottles, and old lady came out  of one of the cottages and thrust a large piece of bread and three hard boiled eggs into my hands, turned around and scuttled back in, while the guard made a show of looking the other way.  That guard was a gentleman.  You should know that contact with civilians was forbidden and another guard might well have shot her'.  Gilleasbuig MacLean - The Long Long Years

The German guard had also shown kindness and not without risk; one camp commandant for his kindness shown towards his prisoners was shipped to the 'Russian Front' and to almost guaranteed death.