Gentleness isn’t the most popular character trait that people desire. Give me courage, or boldness any day of the week. Gentleness can often be seen as an emotional andcan be overlooked and seen as an invaluable fruit of the spirit, but you see that’s only because we often have a skewed perception of what Gentleness is.
Gentleness is not the same as shyness, it’s definitely nota weakness. Gentleness is not cowardice or a lack of leadership, but rather we exhibit gentleness when we are confident of our worth in Christ. Humanity often see gentleness as a disqualification for leadership rather than an essential characteristic and essential to be effective in our day to day ministry.
It’s not as easy to identify when we are lacking Gentleness like when we have a lack of patience or self-control. Those spiritual gifts are much easier to identify because they have a physical consequence. I lack patience with my kids and my response can be harsher then intended and require.
A lack of gentleness often flies under the radar of our own lives and those around us. It’s not as evident and requires us to really examine ourselves internally. We all have moments when we have allowed frustration from other words actions and behaviours evoke a negative thought or feeling towards someone. We may not verbalise it or act on that emotion, but true gentleness is our ability to recognise frustration as warranted as it may be and make a conscious decision to look past frustration and call out the best in a person.
Truth is it’s much easier to practice gentleness towards others as you can make a decision to look past others failings and practice faith seeing who that person is more then the actions or behaviours they exhibit.
But Gentleness towards yourself man that can be another whole kettle of fish. Seeing the best in others sign me up, looking inwardly and seeing the best in my is confronting often confusing and downright challenging. Practising Gentleness towards yourself isn’t about just being patient or gracious to yourself it’s not just about giving yourself room to fail, even though we hate the thought of failure it’s a natural part of life. My children had to learn to walk they didn’t just start walking it took months of crying crawling and falling over before they had enough strength and dexterity to start walking.
Gentleness towards ourselves comes from the understanding of our worth in Christ. When we first have an appreciation of how Gentle God is with us. But why would God be so patient, I know how stubborn I can be, how many times I have missed the mark and fallen short of Gods best for me, yet God remains faithful why?
Well like my kids who fell many times before they ever walked, it never stopped me believing that one day they wouldn’t just walk but also run. God exudes gentleness because he can see past your current circumstance and situation to where he has called you to be. It’s our responsibility to not see ourselves through our own lens but to understand our worth in Christ, we are loved beyond compared, created for a purpose and have been designed for the very destiny God has place over our lives. When we see ourselves the way that God sees us it gives us room to show gentleness to ourselves.
The truth is we can all have seasons where gentleness isn’t as evident in our lives in seasons of stress, grief and frustrations its often Gentleness that often falls always as its not natural. It’san are we need to continually work on. That’s why we need to rely on the power of the holy spirit to continue to open our eyes to deficiencies in our lives.
My encouragement is to pray, ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and reveal areas that maybe Gentleness is not evident. But not only reveal an area of deficiency but also to reveal our worth, that we would have a true understanding of how intricately and wonderfully we are made.
Chevaun Tabacaru is a mother to three children, two gorgeous girls and a cheeky, beautiful boy. Chevaun is studying a Bachelor of Ministry and Pastors alongside her husband Mark at Calvary Christian Church, Rockhampton. She is passionate about bridging the gap between Community and Church, as she leads Calvary Care globally.