Kindness Begins With Me

A while ago I wrote a post about charity and how kindness is one of the first steps to developing charity.  It must have been a long while ago, because I can't find it to link it there.   This morning my shower musings (I think fast in 10 minutes) illuminated something to me. 
I was thinking about the state of the world.  I was thinking about the people at the time of Noah and how it was a mercy for Heavenly Father to send the flood because the people had gotten into such a rut of wickedness that they couldn't get out.  It was like Noah was speaking a foreign language to them.  "What is this 'repentance' of which you speak?"  It wasn't like there were pockets of good people, because God wouldn't have sent the flood.  They were all that way.  Every one.  They were all violent and how could they teach their children any differently with every thought in their heads turning to evil?  How could they strive for betterment, for an ideal that they couldn't see.  I believe that they could have chosen differently-- they had the agency-- but change like was going to be harder than they were capable of in the situation.  This is Jill's doctrinal suppositions, but I also kind of think that the earth itself had been so tainted with wickedness, with spilt blood, degradation, and immorality that it needed to be cleansed as well.  Maybe even the animals had become corrupt?  Does flesh mean just mankind or is it all mortal flesh? 
Genesis 6:
5 ¶And God saw that the ^awickedness of man was great in the earth, and that ^bevery imagination of the ^cthoughts of his ^dheart was only ^eevil continually.

 11 The earth also was ^acorrupt before God, and the earth was filled with ^bviolence.

 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all ^aflesh had corrupted his ^bway upon the earth.

 13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with ^aviolence through them; and, behold, I will ^bdestroy them ^cwith the earth.

There have been a couple of things that I read lately that made me think we are (if not already there) headed into a likewise situation.  Except we have the pockets of goodness.  There are still people all over the earth who are good. 
Remember when, before his death, President Hinkley kept talking about being kind?  Think about how many times President Monson tells us stories, either from his life, or others, where service and kindness are the themes.  Until this morning, I thought, "How sweet" all the while hungering for some meatier doctrine I could sink my teeth into.  The other apostles and general authorities really excel at making me think and ponder. 
Then again, when I sat at the Marriot Center watching President Hinkley deliver the Family Proclamation (I think it was the General Relief Society meeting and he extended the meeting to give it), I did not think that the world would spiral out of control on the very principles being taught in that page long revelation. 
So maybe the many calls to kindness are more than sweet sentiments.  Maybe they ARE the prophetic warnings of our time as we watch violence, hatred, anger, and a vast selfishness take over the media we are exposed to and the lives in our communities and homes.  Maybe I should be really, really paying attention to them and thinking about them and about how I can be kinder in my home and teach my children to be kinder to each other. 
If one person had listened to Noah, God would not have sent the flood.  We learn this lesson from Sodom and Gomorrah. 
Am I listening? 
Kindness begins with me.
Man.  I've got some repenting to do.