on gentleness

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." galatians 5:22-23

at institute (my religion class) today

my (amazing) teacher says, "a true man of god is gentle"

and i thought about it

and he saw a light bulb go on in my head

and he watched me pick up my pen (thats when you know it gets good in brain)

so he called on me

and i was thinking "AAAAmen"

i told him i was dating the man of my dreams. and the whole class got all excited at this, and i said that's not the point. haha. and then i went on to say that THIS (being gentle) this one of the attributes that drew me to josh. My teacher asked me to expand on this thought to help the men in my class (oh dear teacher don't EVEN get me started on teaching these men the WAYS!). So i just told them something like this:

my man is gentle in the way he speaks to me, his tone-the words he chooses

ALMOST always

and it's the best thing in the whole world.

he is gentle in the way he treats me and touches me

no doubt my man is uber manly. he works hard, he shoots guns, he'll beat you up, his hands are rough, he's trying to grow a beard =]

and the world needs to know that you can be masculine and strong and still be gentle

and then i said more

my teacher thanked me for sharing.

he said the world has men thinking it is better to be rough, and aggressive, and thus abusive

it's true

i walked out of class and thought about WHY i love how gentle josh is to me

i have never noticed "gentleness" with any other man really. well not really toward me. i have a teacher that i always thought "i want to marry a man just like him". and HE was a gentle man. leaders back at home that i admire, are gentle men.

and i have concluded that i love this gentleness because it is like they're showing reverence to me

respect.

like you would never yell a prayer to God

you would never bang drums to God

you speak gently, you bow your head, you close your eyes

THIS is how my man treats me

being gentle is not weak, being gentle is showing great love and respect

this is one of the most wonderful attributes.

just yesterday i stopped to tell josh how one of my favorite attributes about him is how responsible he is. it's refreshing. but i changed my mind. it's his gentleness.

it's the best.

i want to try to live this way. more gentle. to everyone. with my thoughts too. with myself too.

i just got a text from josh saying he got the stain out of my purple shirt.

i love that man.