"Let your gentleness be evident to all."

Let your gentleness be evident to all...

Phil 4:5

Yesterday, I watched a woman conducting business with a sales person and although I couldn't put my finger on exactly what seemed a bit abrupt in her attitude, there was something just a bit wrong.   I spent much of the afternoon thinking on and off about what I had seen and heard, you know during the down time in the day,  in those moments when there is time to think, like when washing dishes or hanging laundry on the line.  I saw a bit of myself in this woman and I think that is what bothered me.  I really don't want to come across the way she did.  It was nothing overtly offensive, but just maybe a bit pushy or something.   Finally when I sat down to do a bit of knitting it came to me, just what was missing in the conversation I had heard.  There was no gentleness in her.  Not a single soft word, even though she never was unkind or harsh.  It was that there was no gentleness evident.  Even in doing business we need to let our gentleness be evident to all.  Often we seem to equate gentleness with weakness and just the opposite is true.  Gentleness is strength.   From a woman's point of view, a Christian woman, the need for me to have a gentle and meek spirit is very important.   Its a goal for me.  I fall short far too often.  In prayer I ask God to make the moments when I fail, to be very obvious to me, so I can correct them.  Understand where my heart was at the moment when gentleness faded into the background.   The journey we call life is often a trip where we must stop often and ask directions from above.