I am not naturally overly-endowed with gentleness. In fact, I'm not even underly-endowed. Case in point? My wife and kids do not allow me to remove anything from their faces (eyelashes, crumbs, smudges, boogers, etc.) because apparently my fingers don't exactly soothingly solve the problem. They'd actually rather have a booger on their upper lip than have me be the one to remove it.
My operating principle, by nature, seems to be something like exuberant blunt force trauma. My wife calls me a steamroller. Unfortunately, this means I often have to go back and confess sin along the lines of, "hey, I'm sorry that I said the right thing in the very wrong way."
After having run my steamroller into many walls over the years--experiences that ended up hurting me--God has more fully grabbed my attention and invited me to pursue a greater generosity of heart. (I'm pretty convinced that underneath all gentleness is generosity of heart.)
And so Galatians 6 is a particularly helpful Scripture to me. "If anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness." That verse might as well be in neon on the inside of my office door.
I've discovered that no matter how mad I might be or how convinced I may be of someone's wrongness, I can and must talk with them generously with a generous heart. James says the anger of man doesn't achieve the righteousness of God. I've found that is true even when "I'm right" and "they're wrong". A gentle answer really does turn away wrath. And a right word spoken in season is like apples of gold in settings of silver (i.e. its pretty enough that if it was in a store, you'd want to buy it and put it in your home.)
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