Devotional 6 focuses on gentleness. This devotional, like the others, is timed for less than 10 minutes, but feel free to slow down if your kids are older or have a longer attention span. Parents your notes are in italics. Happy studying!
Gentleness Matters
To Do:
Read Colossians 3:1-4. Say the verses aloud once or twice. If you and the kids aren't getting close to being able to say the verses, try saying them twice a day, just before bed, or every time you get in the car. Then read Colossians 3:12-14.
Questions to Ask:
Is gentleness just for little girls? Who needs to be gentle and when? Whether you have boys or girls doing devotionals with you this is a very important time to make it clear that gentleness is not a feminine characteristic but a robustly human characteristic. Gentleness (in the sense of physically being delicate, exacting, and precise) is needed in many professions: welders, golfers, surgeons, pediatricians, scientists, computer engineers, clock makers, archaeologists, chefs, florists, carpenters, veterinarians and mechanics. This is a good time if the kids know what they want to be when they grow up to ask them and how gentleness might play a part.
Was Jesus gentle? Who else is told to be gentle? Of course Jesus was gentle when he called the little children to come to Him but don't forget that He is also described as gentle (Matthew 11:29, 2 Corinthians 10:1). Who else?
Timothy (1 Timothy 6:11)
God's approved workman ( 2 Timothy 2:25)
Women (1 Peter 3:4 )
All believers (Titus 3:1-2)
Elders/Overseers/Bishops (1 Timothy 3:2-3)
You won't need an exhaustive list but take a moment and make it plain to the kids that the wise (James 3:13) and pleasing disciple is a gentle person.
Who in your life is gentle with you? Who are you gentle with? When are you tempted to be rough and not gentle? Is it wrong to "roughhouse?" Kids need to know the difference between the joyful, harmless rough and ready play that they need and enjoy and the kind of "play" that is careless, rough, thoughtless and causes harm. One way to help them sort it out is with role play. Have them imagine good and bad scenarios where they could be "rough." For instance the difference in running a little kid over during tag and a full-contact football game.
Insights:
We live in a confused world. Our society can not make up its mind about gender. Scientists define gender with DNA. Feminists insist that gender is a societal construct (in other words something imaginary that our society imposes on us from the outside). And from exposure to our society's sexual sin, many have gained the impression that gender is fluid.
When you put these things in a bag and shake them, what comes out is true disorientation. Boys especially are pushed more and more into rigid boxes of masculinity that don't include virtues that are powerfully godly. Anger is allowed but sorrow is not. Excess is allowed but chivalry is not. Stoicism is allowed but gentleness is not.
It is important as you discuss things with your kids, male and female, that you present them with a throughly Christian worldview of gender. For instance, Jesus and David are both pictured as shepherds-rough outdoor work. Yet both of them wept. Strength is not always stoic. They are pictured as both caring for the little lambs and strong and brave to fight off the lions. They are flourishing, thriving men. Abigail, Lydia, Mary and Martha, and the Proverbs 31 woman provide a picture of the complexities of being female. They are hard-workers, skilled in many crafts and business; they work inside and outside their homes, are married and single, and specifically in Mary and Martha's case are honored disciples!
God created gender. It is in our DNA and we have God-given roles to fulfill. But we must not let anyone in or out of the church simplify gender to a shadow of what God ordained.
