Gentleness

Hi Ladies!

This week’s fruit of the Spirit is gentleness. I found gentleness to be a hard word to define. I can think of many things gentleness is not, such as harsh, rude, rough, etc. The best definitions I found were compassionate, considerate and pleasant. Some biblical translations use the word “meekness” for gentleness.

This past Saturday, Kayla came over to the house and gave my cat Peaches a bath. She has a gentle way with animals and she managed to give the cat a thorough cleaning while handling her without hurting her or getting scratched herself. It’s pretty amazing to watch because I remember a year ago when we were living in the camper, Jason and I tried cleaning the cat and the scene was quite different. Jason wasn’t compassionate, Peaches wasn’t considerate and the whole experience was not pleasant. It took weeks for all my scratches to heal.

How often do we use gentleness with the people around us? Proverbs 15:1 tells us, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” I love Proverbs, it’s a short book but has so much good advice. A gentle answer is a soft answer, without anger or accusation. If you’ve ever worked in retail on Black Friday, you know that calm demeanors and gentle answers are in short supply. It’s much the same raising children, raised voices only escalate the situation. When others are purposely pushing our buttons or a situation is escalating, we have to stay calm and keep our answers gentle. If we allow someone to goad us into a fight, then we ruin our Christian witness, not only to the person involved, but also with anyone else that happens to see or hear the exchange.

I’ve often heard people say that gentleness is weakness but that’s far from true. If you see gentleness as a humble strength and a compassionate humility, you will realize that Jesus demonstrated this powerful characteristic in His approach with others. His demeanor was tenderhearted and non-violent and He was able to attract people to himself and lead them into right living. Jesus never tried to used force.

In Matthew 11:29, Jesus describes Himself as gentle, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” I believe the yoke was the burden of the Law, not necessarily the Law that God gave Moses, but all the extra rules added by the Pharisees. It had become burdensome to keep the Law. But Jesus had a much easier way and He wasn’t forceful, He was gentle and compassionate.

And Paul tells us in Galatians 6:1 about correcting a person caught in a sin. “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” Paul says to correct others with gentleness. I wonder how often we remember that when correcting our children? I remember times of raising my voice to my kids and times where I wasn’t all that gentle when I pulled a kid in a tantrum out of the store to take them to the car. I’m not condoning bad behavior, these are all teaching moments and need to be dealt with. But what have we taught them? The person who yells the loudest wins? The stronger person who can use force to get their way is always right? Jesus taught rather than condemned and He told stories to get the point across. He never used force.

So this week as we’re giving thanks for all that God has blessed us with, let’s also consider our interactions with others. When they ask a question, is our answer gentle? When we catch someone in a sin, do we correct them gently and in love? And of course if haven’t been out to visit us, please join us on Sunday at our little church on the hill, it’s worth the drive!