Gentleness - Obsolete and Archaic?

Gentleness is a fruit of the spirit, but in this 'dog eat dog' modern world, this is a spurned and ridiculed trait.  If you delve deeper into its meaning, gentleness is a deceptive fruit of the spirit.  Perhaps noting it's opposite will help hone in on understanding:  Gentleness is the opposite of harshness, anger, arrogance and revenge.

Christianity always returns to 'love your neighbor as yourself', so the fruits of the spirit enumerated in Galatians 5:22/23 are all about how you treat the people around you.  As I've suggested, you don't have to be a Christian to perceive these might be a good ethical and moral system in your interactions with others.   Have you ever met anybody who shows gentleness?  I have been privileged to know a few people whose clear understanding and embodiment of the fruits of the spirit have gobsmacked me.

When my current breast cancer scare arose, I immediately thought of certain people who I specifically wanted to pray for me.  Now, why was that?  Well, each of them visibly embodied more fruits of the spirit than I will ever have.   And, when I read about 'gentleness', I was immediately struck that it was describing a blueprint of how one of these specific people lived her life.  Yep, she's dead now, but it was a privilege to know her and amazing to watch her in action.

What did she do?  Her final analysis of any person, and I mean any person, she came into contact with was to think of ways she might show her love and concern for them.  Did she get angry?  Sure.  Was she occasionally petty or gossipy?  Sure.  However, when she caught herself behaving in such an unfruitful way, she pulled back and rethought.  She was able to reach people the rest of us would have turned away from since we judged them as undeserving, incorrigible, unlovable, and obviously unworthy.  Because that's what it really comes down to:  We judge others in anger and contempt and justify our reaction because we find them unworthy.

Did she permanently change people's lives?  I don't know about anybody else, but she changed mine.  You know the trite and cliched WWJD?  Well, I still often find myself thinking, "What would Mary Helen do?"  I know she would not use her temper to run roughshod over others.  (That volcanic temper thing is one of my personal favorite ways of behaving.)  I know she would not display her arrogance in insisting her way or the highway.  (Arrogance is often a personal characteristic and a real 'go to' way of behavior for me.)  I know she would not plot how to 'get someone back'. ( Hmm - this one I don't do - I just 'cross them off my list' - the ultimate revenge.)

So, there you have gentleness.  This fruit is a BIG struggle for me.  Everyone has the power to belittle, steamroll and get revenge.  The smarter, luckier,or  more financially secure you are, the easier it is to use those unsavory powers.   Choosing not to use personal power to undermine others is showing the fruit of the spirit called gentleness.  If I could show 10% of what my friend Mary Helen showed others, then I would truly be rich.