"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another

in love." Ephesians 4:2

GENTLENESS….
We all have preconceived notions on what gentleness means, but we all know
when someone wasn’t gentle with us. So we have to ask ourselves…

• When/ With who are we not gentle, our husbands, our children,
families, coworkers, friends, strangers, or, ourselves?

• What triggers us to leave gentleness and revert to rage or passiveness?

"…Gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:23

Aristotle said that a virtue is the mean between two vices. If you take two
vices, bad qualities, that stand opposite each other, the character quality that
sits in the middle is a virtue. So in this case Aristotle said that with rage on one
hand and indifference on the other, gentleness was the virtue that sat in the
middle between these two vices.

BALANCE, EVEN
Fairness, Justice, Reasonable. Not some extreme way on the other side thing.

The world is missing reasonable Christians, not talking about pacifiers, or

enablers, I can work with this person, I can trust this person because they are
not unreasonable. Leaving little argument when a result is just and fair

"Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can

break a bone." Proverbs 25:15
1. Gentleness is not weakness, not passiveness, not an enabler or a pacifier

a. No backbone

b. The fruit of 'gentleness' isn't about being wishy-washy,

indecisive, unassertive, or just plain wimp
Someone has wronged us, offended us, doing something that will lead them to
sin, or sometimes we have an opinion on how they handle things may/may not
have nothing to do with us.. How do you react? How do we confront them?

There are two different schools of thought/ messages out parents teach us.
Usually one more than the other.

FLESH
Stand up for yourself, be bold,
blunt, tell it like it is, expose it, and
stand up for what is right. This can
lead to hate and often rage when
uncontrolled.
Be nice/ Be ladylike. Don’t cause a
fuss, don’t worry about it, forget it,
Leads to denial, not setting up
healthy boundaries, passiveness,
getting walked over, being weak.

There are gentle ways to be bold, non-violent ways to stand up for

what is right, and non-manipulative ways to lead and to convince.

GENTLENESS IS
1. Mildness combined with tenderness
2. Gracious, controlled strength
3. A disposition that is even-tempered, tranquil, balanced in spirit,
unpretentious and that has passions under control
4. A character that is equitable, reasonable, forbearing, moderate, fair
and considerate
5. Power and strength under contro
6. Willing to pardon injuries, correct faults. One who rules her spirit
well
 7. To make less severe or intense

The HOLY SPIRIT loves when we practice gentleness because he gets to work.
Gentleness Process- more gentle/ meek

2. Gentleness is strength under submission.

"A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up
anger." Proverbs 15:1
"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew
11:29

3. Gentleness is peace
a. Rest in the holy spirit, allow the Holy Spirit to do the work

b. We take the pressure off of ourselves, and the result is not

dependent on what we said or did not say..

c. When we get in the way, now WE have to answer to God

d. He doesn’t want us to be a hindrance to what he’s trying to do

e. God wants us to be the canvas, that he can paint on

4. Gentleness is grace

a. We live in the grace, we don’t live under the law, so we must

trust that the same grace God gives us will work on others.

The Holy Spirit is a gentleman

God gives us more credit than we give each other. He trusts that his own word
is true. Which means he doesn’t feel the need to shove it down our throats

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will,
but yours be done.”
Luke 22:42

When we want our babies to go to sleep, we don’t over stimulate them with
bright lights or loud noise, bouncing them up and down, ww make sure to keep
the environment peaceful, calm, quiet. We are persuading them to feel
"As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were
gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children." 1
Thessalonians 2:7
We are creating a sense of comfort, of trust, of safety.
No mother knows peace til she’s ready to put a newborn to sleep, we make
sure we are EXTRA GENTLE. In the Revelation, John looks for a lion but
finds a Lamb.