Gentleness-Fly Fishing Va

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” (‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NKJV)‬‬

“Gentleness” has great strength and power”! That is what I learned from my Mother. And, she being the Mother of eleven others! I have not particularly paid much attention to this word, “gentleness”, recently because I haven’t seen or heard much about it.

Recently my youngest son became very interesting in fly fishing. I began to marvel as I watched the gentleness in this sport from all aspects of the people involved. Seemly, they spoke and lived differently than the harshness I had become accustomed to recently in sports, news, and often church. I was finding myself gravitating more to this sport and it ‘caught me’ when I saw the gentleness of words and actions that soothed my soul, “Catch and release.” Then a grandson of my Mother, being a grown man and grandfather himself sent me a page from his journal about the love he had for his grandmother. It started out, “she was a gentle lady! I had tears of joy because he could not have been more accurate about my Mother.

Jesus surely understood the life of a fisherman. He even called some from their vocation to come and help give life to mankind. Surely, something to think about! Then I remembered my Mother grew up in a family of commercial fisherman on the Albermarle Sound.

Jesus’ said “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” was an invitation to his first disciples, who were fishermen, (Matthew 4:19)

I started this blog a few days ago and got busy before I finished as I continued to look for words to release after I knew I had caught, “gentleness”.

Then, just last night Sunday, 10/12/25 I received this email from Debi Chaves;

“I listened to a sermon by Begg on this…thought I would share what the overview said about gentleness.

“Although listed among the fruit of the Spirit, gentleness is an aspect of Christian character that is often neglected. Alistair Begg explains that biblical gentleness is not a natural personality trait but strength under control, pictured perfectly in God’s disposition toward His children and the humility of Jesus Christ. God forms gentleness in us through difficult circumstances as we learn to submit to His Word and grow in the practice of living with consideration for those around us.”

Pastor Alistair Begg said it well. Debi, our friend and Ricky, the grandson, shared stories on gentleness. My Mother lived “gentleness” well! It’s a practice very needful in our world today that some of us believe as we practice, “catch and release”. WOW! Just WOW! Turn WOW up side down and it spells MOM so my 5 year old Granddaughter taught me just a few days ago! WOW MOM! Thanks for releasing gentleness into the world! I want to “catch and release.”