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Me? Gentle?

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)
 
 
     Can you imagine anyone saying, "No THANKS" with regard to the fruit of the Spirit? Who would say "no" to love, or joy, or peace, or patience (well, maybe patience), or kindness, or goodness or faithfulness...? I don't recall the circumstances, but several years ago something happened, and my inner critic's statement about my response was, "Do you realize you're being gentle?" Several similar instances came to mind and I felt my heart tighten. Me? Gentle? "Oh please God, don't make me gentle."
       I had already heard the explanation that gentleness is not weakness, it's strength under control, but gentleness is like peace. I have had bad reactions to peace, too. In my mind both peace and gentleness lacked drama. They lacked energy. In fact, they both flat-lined. They felt dead. What I didn't realize was that instead of being an EKG measuring excitement, they were like the fuse on the Mission: Faithwalk logo, feeding power to the soul.
      About the same time, I began to notice others around me who seemed to relish the "excitement" of the fight even more than I did. They seemed to love to scream obscenities, insults and dehumanizing comments. Some who claimed to be Christian spoke in great anticipation of when the government would arrive to try to take their guns, and the bloodbath that would ensue. I began to speak against the hatred and evil I saw, and discovered how much strength it takes to do that without engaging in the same sort of hatefulness.
        The thing that may have helped me finally accept the idea of gentleness as a good thing (for me personally - it was always a good thing for some other people) was a picture I found of a little boy playing at the hooves of a massive work horse. One stomp, one kick and the kid would have been seriously injured or killed, but there was no fear because he knew the horse would be gentle with him. I'm not sure whether this "I'm safe to be with" idea came before or after my introducing myself as the "Wicked Witch of the West" stopped having any effect on people.
         I'm not saying I'm an example of gentleness that others should follow. I am going to suggest that gentleness is the better answer to "sometimes it's better to be at peace than be right" that I told you I'd point out. It's not better to be gentle than be right - but the answer is that it is best to be gentle when right, gentle when wrong, and perhaps most importantly, gentle when wronged.

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