A Fruit Inventory ~ Velvet Hammers

Greetings Dear Reader, 

Have you ever had a dish of raspberries and reached in to get one only to find it squished the moment you touched it?  The fruit was not rotten.  It was so ripe and sweet it was dissolving.  Those are my favorite raspberries to eat. 

When I had the joy of being a professor, I firmly believed teachers gave away answers too quickly.  I also did not like telling students they were wrong.  Instead, I would respond with a question about the student’s answer.  I would continue to ask questions until it dawned on the student what the correct answer must be. 

One of my more intelligent students once gave a lengthy answer to the question of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and its role.  When she finished, she looked me in the eye and insisted, “Don’t say, ‘Let me ask you a question.’  If I am wrong, I do not want to be hit with your velvet hammer today.” 

Her answer was not wrong.  Instead, I affirmed her response and held a discussion about our fruit of the Spirit under consideration today.  Back then I still carried a great deal of anger.  Gentleness was something for which I had to strive.  In the discussion, the class agreed with the idea of me using questions as better learning than me telling them how they were wrong.  

The idea of gentleness is one I am still working to always grasp.  I am forceful sometimes in my desire to get my point across.  I really struggle when I am trying to help someone see how their actions and thoughts harm them.  It is my desire to protect winning out over their need for me to be gentle.  This is not an excuse.  It is how I must reorder my thinking so the Spirit can guide others and I can stay out of the way. 

Getting back to those overripe raspberries; successfully using a gentle touch can result in their being consumed with a sweet reward I find divine.  Being gentle with others allows them to see the power flowing through you instead of the power you wield on your own.  When we speak the truth gently with love, we can crush almost any barrier.  

I think it is time to point out something about this series, Dear Reader.  I will dwell on it more in my closing thoughts.  The idea is to see all of the pieces of this are a single fruit.  They all blend together to form a sweet, nourishing, and good harmony.  When the truth is delivered gently, it gives others safety to embrace it.  Love casts out fear.  The harshness of the world can be seen as a place from which we need rescue. 

Gentleness is a path to rescue, redemption, and reclamation.  We must treat the walking wounded in our world with gentle kindness.  We must show love by being velvet hammers chipping away at the hardness encrusting the souls of the wounded.  By the way, we are all the walking wounded, Dear Reader.  So, let me ask you a question:  Where do you need to be more gentle with others? 

Wishing you joy in the journey, 

Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

Every human story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything back to Good. 

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As the fruit ripens it yields a sweetness we all treasure.