Tag: gentleness

Potato Chips and Faith

1transparentchristian

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23 NIV)

Sometimes, we joke about the sin of gluttony during church dinners or around the holidays as we enjoy some very tasty foods and indulge in portion sizes we would not normally eat. Maybe you look forward to loading up on Turkey and all the trimmings at Thanksgiving or Mom’s frosted sugar cookies at Christmas time. There are certain times of the year that in the American culture we cook for hours and enjoy delectable meals with family and friends. To my shame, my favorite foods are available at every holiday and to make it worse, any time during the year. I confess to you now that my greatest food weakness is a bag of rippled potato chips alongside my favorite brand of French onion dip. I have watched TV alone with a bag of chips beside me and 30 minutes later wonder how all the chips disappeared. I don’t think I am alone in this because the slogan for Lay’s potato chips used to be “Betcha can’t eat just one”. I have concluded that I have very little self-control around chips! I must stay away from the bowl of chips and only buy them for a special occasion. Self-control in our spiritual lives can be very similar. We may need to stay away from certain things, places or even people to protect ourselves from giving into a weak area of our lives.

The topic of self-control is a huge territory to think about. The above scenario is a little silly but quite honestly who wants to blurt out to the world what their sinful weaknesses are? Take a few moments to think about one area of your life that Jesus is telling you to have more self-control. If you don’t know right away, then ask the LORD to open your heart to hear how you can become closer to God. What sin area are you dealing with right now? Is it alcohol, smoking, swearing, watching dirty movies, sex outside marriage, wandering thoughts or violence? Or are you in the stage of your Christian life where the LORD is pointing out the subtler sin areas? Do you get easily sucked into gossip or think judgmentally about others? Does the computer have more of an appeal to you than reading your Bible or praying? The Holy Spirit is so kind to only convict us of our sin areas one or two areas at a time. If He showed us all the areas of our lives that need refinement I don’t think we could bear it. The great news is that God loves you so much that He wants to help you remove the barriers that keep you from living an effective and productive Christian life.

“For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep your from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our LORD Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.” (2 Peter 1: 5-9 NIV)

Here is a suggested prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your great love for me. I know you are a holy God and my unconfessed sin prevents me from being close to you. Please forgive me for the sin of ________. Help me to have self-control in this area of my life. Please give me wisdom and open my eyes to see the ways You want me to work on this. I can’t do it in my own strength and I need you Jesus to lead, guide and encourage me. Amen.

Gentleness, a Soothing Touch for the Soul

1transparentchristian

IMG_0020 (Edited)

“Let your gentleness be evident to all.” Philippians 4:5 NIV

When I think of gentleness, I think of something soothing or calm like a gentle breeze or kind-hearted person or sweet words spoken to a baby. My husband and I were blessed with our first grandchild seven months ago and it is so nice to witness the way different family members interact with him. My husband’s eyes light up as soon as he sees Dawson. He smiles sweetly at him and the sound of his voice automatically changes to a warm, happy, higher pitched voice reserved especially for babies. Dawson loves this interaction and smiles and wiggles his arms and legs with excitement. My 19-year-old son, on the other hand, is new to being around babies and approaches Dawson, differently. He will come in the room stare at him, stick out his tongue a few times and say nothing or say “what are you doing?” He does not change his voice at all and waits for the baby’s reaction. The other day when this interaction occurred, Dawson slowly gave a half smile to him and then looked around the room awkwardly like “why doesn’t he talk to me like grandpa? Ummm, what do I do?” After a few minutes, we all laughed amazed at the baby’s perception of the different approach from his uncle. When he saw us smile and laugh the baby relaxed and started smiling broadly too.

The way we approach adults and children alike is very important. If a seven-month-old baby can pick up on clues in posture, tone of voice and facial expression you better believe others can too! Researchers say it takes less than a minute for someone to form an opinion about what type of person we are. Our attitude is felt by body language and speech. Our words and tone give clues to our feelings and agenda. I want to take this a step further as we think about our words when we speak to our family and friends. Is gentleness evident in your words and your tone? One of my own weak areas in my Christian life has been how I speak to my kids and my husband when I am tired or mad. Those words and reactions to their simple questions do not always exude gentleness. The Bible tells us that “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of a fool gushes folly.” (Proverbs 15:1-2 NIV)

It is so easy in the heat of the moment to let words fly. It is when we are careless with our words that we hurt those we care about the most. Sometimes we don’t even realize that we are being so hurtful and mean to our family or friends until we have already caused the damage. Think about it. Do we yell at the kids the same way we yell at the dog? Do we respectively speak to our husbands the same way we speak to our boss or our father? Ouch! I know, that one hurts me too! Do we radiate the same gentleness we feel at church into the lives of our family in and in our homes? Gentleness does not happen overnight. It occurs as we grow in our relationship with the LORD and as we submit to his correction.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Galatians 5:22-25 NIV

Dear LORD Jesus, help me with my words and my tone of voice. Help me to take captive the bad thoughts and words that fly through my mind. Holy Spirit, filter my thoughts before they become harmful words and help me to exude gentleness in all I do.  I want to draw closer to you and grow spiritually so that the fruit of the Spirit are evident in my life. Amen.