Skip to main content

Gentle


 Ah gentleness.  The most difficult of the fruit of the Spirit for me.  All of my life I have read how women are supposed to be gentle and quiet in spirit.  I always admired gracious, graceful, delicate women, mainly because that couldn't be more opposite of my personality.  The opposite of gracious?  Perhaps sarcastic, severe, ungiving.  The opposite of graceful?  Perhaps careless, awkward.  The opposite of delicate?  Perhaps robust, strong.

Being gentle really has nothing to do with personality or circumstances.  How God hard-wired my personality doesn't make being gentle impossible.  Gentleness basically means to stop fighting God, accepting His dealings with us, considering them as good.  

Last year was hard on me on many levels, and I fought tooth-and-nail with what God wanted to teach me.  I ignored what I already knew and continued on my own strength.  I resisted being restrained.  I believe it is in the letting go, releasing control of what is "safe", being willing to step into the unknown that leads us closer to God.   I am committing myself to submissiveness, no longer fighting God in this maturing process.  This is the exercise of gentleness.  As Beth Moore describes it: responsibility with power.  

I sometimes find myself wanting to hang on to some level of control over an emotional or difficult issue, my "right" to be mad about something.  Not accepting God's dealing with us will cause us to be bitter. And when I allow myself to go there, I'm most definitely not exercising a gentle spirit. 

I have a lot of goals for 2023, but I found myself drawn to the opposite when it came to what I wanted to work on this year.  I want this year to be the one where I choose to be gentle:  with my words, with my actions, with my expectations, and over all with the way I carry myself.  




Much Love,

Beth


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monday Morning Chit-Chat

  Happy Monday, friends! Well, here we are again. Another Monday morning, another fresh week, and another cup of coffee that I'm hoping will magically give me the energy to accomplish all the things on my to-do list. Spoiler alert: It probably won't. But I'm going to drink it anyway. I thought we would start this week with a little old-fashioned chit-chat. Nothing too serious, nothing life changing. Just a little catching up on life lately, a few random thoughts, and whatever else happens to pop into my head. you know, the kind of conversation we'd have if you stopped by my house, pulled up a chair, and stayed a while. So grab your coffee (or whatever gets you going in the morning), and let's visit. First things first...it's October! This year is absolutely flying by. I love this time of year. The cozy evenings, the fall decorations, the soups and comfort foods, and the excuse to stay home in my pajamas a little longer. Now if Arkansas could just get the memo t...
Post a Comment
Read more

What's Up Wednesday

 Happy What's Up Wednesday! Today I am linking up with  Shay  and  Sheaffer  for another "What's Up Wednesday" Let's do this! What we're eating this week... So far this week we have made: Wings on the Pit Boss Slow Cooker Pineapple Pork Chops You can't get any easier than wings and chops! Especially when they are on the grill and slow cooker!! What I'm Reminiscing About... Septembers past: September is Trey's birth month. It is also the month that my grandpa died four years ago. This is the year that Papa gave Trey a gun for his birthday. He was so proud to give it to Trey and you can tell by the look on Trey's face how happy he was. Such a sweet moment to remember. Our county fair is also in September. My kids used to love it when they were younger. They still love rides, just not the traveling kind :) This was Wrenley's school picture last year. She has grown so much in one year :) What I'm Loving... Makena and my mom have started mak...
Post a Comment
Read more

Be Her: When Our Ideal Self Becomes an Idol

 Ella Langley's "Be Her" got me thinking about something I think a lot of women struggle with- the woman we think we should be.  You know her. She's more disciplined. More confident. More put together. She exercises, keeps the house clean, reads her Bible every morning, never loses her patience, and somehow always has good hair. We tell ourselves, If I could just be her..... And there's nothing wrong with wanting to grow. But what happens when the woman we want to become turns into an idol? Sometimes we become so focused on our ideal self that we forget to ask God who He wants us to become. There's a subtle difference between praying, "Lord, make me more like Christ," and saying, "Lord, help me to become the woman I've decided I need to be." One is surrender. The other can easily become control.  Philippians 1:6 reminds us that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. God isn't waiting fo...
Post a Comment
Read more