The ADVERTISEMENT on a local real estate marquee caught my eye: "Lake-front home, gentle to the water." I wasn't in the market for a new home, but that sweet phrase, "gentle to the water," which referred to a gentle slope from house to lake, rather than a sudden drop-off, spoke to me.
I've long admired gentleness and humility in others. And I've endeavored to be better at embodying those qualities myself. This has required prayer and discipline. Sometimes I've been successful; sometimes I haven't. But I'm reassured by the promise that Mary Baker Eddy articulated in Science and Health: "The Divine Being must be reflected by man, —else man is not the image and likeness of the patient, tender, and true, the One 'altogether lovely;' ..." Science and Health, p. 3. In other words, it's in each individual's nature as the reflection of God to embody all the goodness encompassed in that Divine Being—expressed as gentleness, humility, and so forth.
It's not always easy. Sometimes patience or gentleness in the face of incompetence, a lackadaisical attitude, or just out-and-out rudeness feels impossible. But this passage from the Bible gives me good guidance, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Gal. 5: 22, 23. To me this is an assurance that nothing has the power to keep people from expressing God's nature.
