gentle

But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.

1 Thessalonians 2:7

Ministry has an intense side to it. Many times people need to wrestle with a hard truth, make a difficult choice, or be confronted about a destructive, sinful behavior. But even in those moments, Paul’s tender metaphor of a mother with her infant child still should dominate how ministry is perceived and experienced. Love is gentle. It can sense when immaturity and need require a more motherly hand.

I know I have needed that sort of gentle nurturing at times. This was particularly true of my early commitment to follow Jesus. There are people in my past, people God used when I was a toddler in the faith, to gently show me what to do. Some of them just imitated Jesus quietly. They were patient. They talked to me. They understood. They didn’t rush, or scold, or smother me. By their example they winsomely won me over to live as they did. They were gentle, caregiving nurturers and stand as giants to me now.

Lord,

I am not sure that my discipleship example has always been a gentle one. Help me to pause, to care, to show with gentleness and to nurture the fruit of the Spirit and the example of Christ. May I be not just an instructor… not just a challenger… but a nurturer.

Amen