Earlier this week I read a devotion, I am pretty sure it was one from Girlfriends in God, and one little piece of it mentioned "Gentleness wages peace". This has stuck with me since I read it. It keeps popping to mind.
What is it most of us want - we say balance, we say more time, things like that. But what is boils down to is we want productive lives in various areas - but we want it with PEACE. I want peace at home, peace in my business, peace with my family, peace at work, peace with my weight loss, peace with our finances, peace with household chores/cleanliness. When I decide to tackle one of these areas at any given time, I can assure you gentleness is not what I am about. No, no. Watch me stand up, roll my sleeves up, square my shoulders and give it what for until I accomplish what I want accomplished - sometimes there are simply casualties, which leads to guilt, which leads to doubt, which leads to inaction...are you following me here? If I change my approach to gentleness - which is VERY new to me - things appear to change and peace seems to prevail.
I got to test this this morning. My husband was a bit grumpy and had some not so nice things to say to me - via text. It made me MAD! I quickly asked a friend for prayer. Then I was prompted to call my husband which shocked me because I am really bad about speaking now only to really regret it later. I was prompted to tell him I was sorry he was having a bad day. So, I kinda let him vent, then said I understood and sorry he was having a bad day. Then I was prompted to text him...I think I did so pretty gently...much more gently than what is natural for me. But remember - ultimately I want peace between my husband and I, and peace with the issue he was upset about, it is a legitimate issue. So I sent that and immediately sent another that said I love you and I am sorry you are having a bad day. A little time went by but he did text back that he loved me too and that he was sorry he is grumpy. The issue isn't completely resolved, but I do forgive him for being grumpy and I won't bring it up tonight when I get home. I feel pretty confident gentleness is waging peace.
God has been working on me with my priorities...my "need to get this done" list. I believe he gave me that devotion to help me see that I can approach the list differently, better and get a better outcome. Life throws us stress, we bring stress on ourselves....but we don't have to act out of stress. We can choose to be gentle. It's hard. It's harder for me to comprehend than asking for and exercising patience. But I can't help but to believe this is going to be significant for the rest of my life.
Gentleness wages peace.
D. J.
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