Unravelling My Thoughts

Fruits of the Spirit--Gentleness

Gentle people have tender hearts toward other people. There is no "unimportant" person to them. There are no rash judgments based on cultural stereotypes. This is not the way many people act toward one another, but, like I've written before, with God all things are possible. Incorporating the fruits of the Spirit in your life would be thinking and acting out of the box, but who wants to suffocate in the world's stale status quo thinking? Not me.

People of the Sanguine temperament are outgoing and friendly and rarely hold grudges over long-passed offenses. They accept people as they are, and that is good and bad, for their association determines their mentality. They, naturally, tend to think very high of themselves and might easily forget what they had planned to do to help someone else. As they grow older, they will develop standards for those people they will accept as long-term friends. They are friendly toward everyone, usually, but certain people do not fit in with the crowd they usually run with. The other problem a Sanguine has is that they will often blurt out comments without thinking of how it will affect someone else. A Sanguine driven by the Holy Spirit learns quickly to tame his/her tongue and is passionate about uplifting other people.

Cholerics need a large dose of gentleness. When they are on their course toward their goals, they often will ignore the people they feel cannot help them. They may be rude to those they feel have no right to give them advice. If they don't see a certain person fitting into the big picture of where they see their lives going, then they will be easily turned aside and forgotten. Their tongue, like the Sanguine, is unruly. They are not happy with incompetence, and if they do not hold their tongue and learn to treat people gently, no matter how badly they might have messed up, then they will alienate friends and family and lose out on potentially loving relationships. Cholerics should, at any cost, incorporate this fruit into their lives, for their sake, and the sake of their loved ones.

Melancholies naturally have a good dose of this fruit, most of the time. They are genuinely moved by other people's distress. They often will sacrifice their own well-being for the sake of another. The reason I said most of the time, was that Melancholies are also naturally moody. There are times when they are delving into self-pity and depression that they are not concerned about helping others because they don't feel that they can help themselves. Melancholies often deny their own worth, even with the tender golden hearts they were richly endowed with. Focusing on others, but not totally forgetting about building their own self-worth is a balance a Melancholy must make. The other fruits of the Spirit, including this one, will help them do just that.

Phlegmatics often look at situations from the outside without getting emotionally involved. We tend to watch other people before trusting them. We fall into the trap, however, of the media, for we are the most prone of all of the temperaments to be indulgent in sedentary television viewing. This, I've learned, is not good for the observant Phlegmatic. I've cut off my cable and now concentrate on association with postive people, as well as my writing. We are not, however, outright verbal about our objections toward someone. We tend to avoid people we don't think will speak with us because of self-esteem issues. We will also avoid people who we feel are beneath us. We have a standard of who our friends are, for we have very few people we fully trust. I've learned, however, to think out of the box on this issue. I have a positive view of people in general, and I haven't been let down since I've formed that point-of-view. No one is beneath me speaking to. I went to a homeless shelter to volunteer my time, and I've lived amongst foreigners for a few years while in Germany. What I've found is that our wants and needs are basically the same. And, the most important spiritual need of all is to be recognized and to be loved. The gentle, patient heart of a Phlegmatic can go a long way to help other people out of their dire situations. Phlegmatics should indulge more in the Holy Spirit, and less in television.


Do you have any other comments about gentleness?