The Fruit of the Spirit is GENTLENESS.
Today’s background photo shows yet another early-morning work commute across Lake Washington, as day is gently dawning. But this sunrise is blocked by a low heavy blanket of cloud cover! Dark and heavy and low!
This is how most of us feel as we face each new workday! God has given us a beautiful new day to serve Him. But it feels as if all the beauty in life is blocked out by a low heavy blanket of dark hatefulness from everyone all around us. Our daily workplace interactions are so heavy! They weigh us down! They bring us so low!
Proverbs 15:4b states: “… a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.” Yes … this pretty much sums up our workdays! Each day leaves us absolutely crushed! We come home utterly spent and wiped out each evening, not sure how we are going to make it through the next day. Yet somehow we drag ourselves out of bed the next morning and head out to face it all over again.
Proverbs 15:4a states: “The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life.” The way we are getting crushed at work each day is the way everyone is getting crushed at work each day. And in the midst of the crushing it might not seem like the simple normal things we say could make much of a difference … but they do!
The tongue that brings healing is LIFE. Our GENTLENESS can be LIFE to our coworkers. Our GENTLENESS can be LIFE to our customers, to our clients.
Our daily verse today states: “Live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and GENTLE; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” -Ephesians 4:2
Even in the crushing, our GENTLENESS can be a lifeline for those around us.
The Fruit of the Spirit is GENTLENESS.