The Lord must be doing a work in me as I am finding references to gentleness throughout scripture recently. Gentleness and humility go hand in hand. Humility often leads to gentleness.
Let me give an illustration. I was with a group of people, all of whom ate in the kitchen and cleaned up after themselves in different manners. There were some who ran out and grabbed lunch from a local diner, brought it to the kitchen, sat and ate, then threw away their containers--done. Some brought their food from home, then left their containers with left-over food in them on the table, planning to take them home at the end of the day. There were also those who brought food from home, cleaned their dishes and immediately put them away and made sure the place they ate was clean behind them. And of course there were those who simply left their mess behind without giving thought to it needing to be cleaned at all. Humility in action was the one who came in later and seeing the mess the kitchen was left in simply cleaned up without telling anyone what they'd done. This person did a menial task without needing anyone to take note of what they'd done--humility. The gentleness came in when this humble person later encountered those who'd left the mess and simply conversed, enjoyed the conversation, was pleasant in every way, not holding their mess against them.
It is not easy being a humble person, but watching humility in action has taught me something. I want to be like that humble person. I like the space in which they seem to live. I guess I really went to the humble aspect instead of gentleness here, but for me they need to be intertwined. The humility gets lost if by being humble we then take on an attitude of others owing us something. If we are able to have a gentle mindset the peace we exude draws people in and we can love as Jesus loves.
I am going to put on a cloak of gentleness today that shares the love of Jesus. I am going to be gentle at work and at home--maybe especially at home since that's where I tend to let my hair down and not have a guard on my thoughts, words and actions.
Where will you exhibit gentleness in your world today?
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