The Sweet Strength of Gentleness

Claire Black: Welcome to True Girl, a podcast for girls and their moms. Together, we’ll explore God’s truth for us one drive at a time. Buckle up! You’re about to grow closer to each other and closer to Jesus!

Hardly anyone would say they think too much about themselves. But sometimes, my True Girl friend, we really do! Find out why that has to change. In this episode, we’re stirring up the secret that will help you get over thinking about yourself too much. You’ll learn that the right mindset can bring strength and love to those around you.

Dannah Gresh and Staci Rudolph are discussing the fruit of the Spirit in this season of the True Girl podcast. It’s called “A Recipe for a Fruitful Life,” and it’s based on Galatians 5:22 and 23, which reads: 

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

Okay, Dannah and Staci are having a bit of an adventure today. Let’s listen to Season 15, Episode 9: “The Sweet Strength of Gentleness.” Here’s Dannah.

Dannah Gresh: Staci, I decided we should make something easy today—chocolate-covered strawberries—especially since it’s stormy. I want to sit by the fire!

Staci Rudolph: Perfect! I love chocolate-covered strawberries.

Dannah: I already washed and dried the strawberries, so they’re ready to use. Can you melt some chocolate while I get the pan ready?

Staci: Sure! 

Uh, Dannah, the power’s out!

Dannah: Uh oh. Good thing we’re not baking a pie! But we can still melt the chocolate on the stove.

Staci: Doesn’t it need electricity?

Dannah: Normally, but we can light the burner with a match. 

There. Now set the bowl over a little water in a pan and stir.

Staci: Got it. Thanks!

Dannah: While that melts, let’s talk about gentleness—the next fruit of the Spirit.

Staci: You know, I wasn’t exactly a “gentle” kid. Basketball and running wild were more my thing.

Dannah: Gentleness isn’t about being soft or quiet. It’s about humility—putting others first and showing kindness, even when it’s hard.

Staci: Oh, that makes sense. Like thinking of others before yourself.

Dannah: Exactly. And the Holy Spirit helps us grow that kind of gentleness, no matter whether we’re a shootin’-hoops kind of girl or a let’s-knit-a-hat kind of girl.

Staci: Cool! Hey, the chocolate’s ready!

Dannah: Great. Let’s dip and roll the strawberries. And while they harden, we’ll cozy up by the fire.

Staci: I’m all about that, but they taste pretty good already!

Hey, did anyone ever call you gentle growing up?

Dannah: Ah, not really. I’m still not prone to be gentle naturally. As the leader of True Girl, you know I can be like a sergeant if I’m not careful! God put the quality of leadership in me. And Staci,. this year about 650,000 tween girls will hear about the love of Jesus through True Girl. 

Staci: Woo hoo! Go, team True Girl!

Dannah: That required my leadership. But I have to ask for God’s Spirit to control my leadership tendencies with gentleness.

And it’s not just at True Girl. It’s at home. Like this morning—true story—I was running late to get ready to record this podcast. There were dishes everywhere. My first instinct? To run upstairs, tell Farmer Bob who was staying home, “I’m super busy today. I need you to clean up the kitchen!” But, the reason he was staying home is because he hasn’t been feeling well. Then I thought, I could choose to leave this mess for him, or I could choose gentleness.

So I stopped, washed the dishes, and left the kitchen better than I found it. Was it easy? No. But gentleness is about thinking of others before yourself, even in the little things.

Staci: Wow, so doing dishes can be an act of gentleness?

Dannah: Absolutely! Gentleness isn’t about big heroic moments—it’s about the everyday choices to be humble and kind. And trust me, I’m still learning. Let’s learn more about how the Holy Spirit helps us with gentleness!

Staci: So first, let me recite Galatians 5:22–23.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

Okay, so we know that the Holy Spirit grows this fruit in us as God’s children. 

Dannah: Yep. It’s God’s presence in these qualities that makes them mean something different. 

Ya know, the everyday meaning of the word “gentle” does sort of mean soft or slow. Like “gentle breeze,” “gentle touch,” “gentle music.”

Staci: Oh, gentle like a “gentle nudge.” Unless it’s my dog nudging me off the couch; then it’s more like a full-body shove!

Dannah: [laughter] Well, in this verse, the word that’s used here could be translated “humility.” So what we’re really talking about is thinking about others first, instead of being absolutely always looking out for number one—ourselves.

Staci: Oh, I get it. Thinking about yourself too much can look like . . . hmm . . . grabbing the biggest slice of pizza before anyone else even has a chance. Or, what about hogging the remote during movie night? I mean, everyone wants to watch my favorite show, right? 

Or, like not sharing your snacks when you clearly have more than enough. That one’s hard for me—I mean, who wants to share chocolate?

Oh, and my personal favorite—leaving your mess everywhere and thinking, Eh, someone else will clean it up. That’s not exactly gentle or thoughtful, huh?

Dannah: Not exactly! But hey, recognizing it is the first step toward growing gentleness.And pretty much all of us think about ourselves too much, which is why the Bible is super clear about this topic in Philippians chapter 2. I’m gonna read a little bit of a longer passage, so listen carefully.

Staci: I’ve got my listening ears on!

Dannah: Philippians chapter 2, verses 3 through 8, says this:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Staci: That verse says almost exactly what we’ve been saying for each of the fruit of the Spirit—we should be humble because Jesus is humble!

Dannah: That’s what I wanted you to notice. It’s really amazing that God would show any of these—love, patience, kindness, and so on—to us, but I think it’s most amazing that He would be humble.

Staci: Yeah, I mean, He’s God! He wouldn’t have to think about us at all, much less do anything for us.

Dannah: Right. But He did. And so, Jesus willingly said, “You know what? Even though everything that exists is mine, I’m gonna give up my royal position staying here by the Father. I’m gonna go be one of the people, with no special privileges and no riches. I’m gonna die on the cross so they don’t have to.”

Staci: That was the most humble thing anyone has ever done.

Dannah: Or ever will do! And He did it for us!

You know, I heard someone say once that one way to think of it is to imagine a rich prince turning into an ant and living with the other ants. Why would anyone do that, even if he could? Who even thinks about ants? I imagine it would get kinda boring, doing the same thing every day, storing up food for the winter and whatever else ants do, not being able to read or play or anything he could do as a prince. 

Staci: I guess it would be!

Dannah: When Jesus became a man and lived and died for us, it’s a little, tiny bit like that, but even more crazy. It’s hard to imagine!

Staci: I like that picture. 

Dannah: Me too.

Staci: When we understand how Jesus humbled Himself, that makes us humble before God, right?

Dannah: Yes. We realize, “Wow, God made me and loves me. Even though I’m so sinful? I don’t deserve it!” We understand that God is so much greater than we are and so we worship Him and want to obey Him. That is humility towards God.

Staci: Remind me how this ties to gentleness?

Dannah: Well, like I said, some people say that in Galatians 5 the fruit of the Spirit that’s listed as “gentleness” could be translated from the original Greek into the word “humility.” The reason that gentleness works there, though, is that when someone is humble, she is gentle in the sense of not being selfish or getting angry easily or saying unkind things. 

Staci: Ah, I see. It’s not so much being soft and slow in what you like to do but in how you respond to people.

Dannah: Yeah. Gentleness does not mean that you’re a wimp or that you always talk in a whisper. It means you’re thinking about others, not yourself. 

Staci: So, thinking more about others than yourself could be as simple as thanking your mom for cooking dinner.

Dannah: You’re right, it can be little things like that. Or like letting your friend borrow the book she asked about even though you have to rummage through your room to find it. 

Staci: Depending on what your room looks like, that could be hard. But what’s really hard is when something feels unfair. Like maybe there are only enough cookies for everyone to have one, and before you know it your big brother has eaten two, and you didn’t get any! Are you gonna get all mad at him? Or are you going to think, It’s okay. He’s got a bigger stomach than me anyway!

Oh man. I’m not very good at that.

Dannah: None of us is good at humility. 

In fact, when you’re frustrated with a situation, take some time to write about it. Write how you felt. Write why you felt that way? Write how you responded? Then, circle all the times you wrote the words “I” or “me.” Hmm . . . it’s a pretty good test of how me-focused we can be. God wants us to put Him first, others second. That’s the gentle life!

Remember, the fruit of the Spirit, including this one, are the result of God’s Spirit in our lives. 

Staci: Yeah. Dannah, we’re gonna need to talk about how we invite the Spirit into our lives.

Dannah: Oh, I plan to do that during one of our visits as we talk about the fruit of the Spirit. But right now, I want to invite you back to the kitchen. The chocolate’s hardened. Let’s indulge. 

Staci: I accept your invitation, and I have no intentions of being late. Speaking of late . . . Why was the strawberry late to the party? Because it got stuck in a jam!

Claire: That was a good reminder from Dannah that only God can change our hearts to make us humble and gentle.

I hope you’ll try out that exercise she told us about, where you see how many times you use the word “I.” But, what should you do about what you find out?

Well, you’ll probably find that a lot of the time you’re thinking more about yourself than other people. Don’t give up and say, “Who cares? I’m not even gonna try.” Instead, pray. Ask God to forgive you for being proud and to help you have a humble heart that shows in gentle responses to others. Thank Jesus for humbling himself so much as to die for you. Then rely on God to change your attitude! That doesn’t mean it’s not hard work. When you’re tempted to be angry or insist on what you want, you’ll have to choose whether you’re going to do that or if you’ll think about the others instead of yourself.

Now, a good strawberry is worth finding any time of year, so go get some and make some chocolate-covered strawberries with your mom! (Hopefully your power doesn’t go out, though.) You might be able to make them without a recipe, but if you need one, you can find it in the transcripts of True Girl at ReviveOurHearts.com. This episode is titled “The Sweet Strength of Gentleness.” 

Well, can you believe next week is the last episode of this series? Dannah and Staci will talk about self-control. Ever feel like it’s hard to say no or stay on track? Yep, me too. Come back to hear about that!

The True Girl podcast is produced by Revive Our Hearts, calling women of all ages to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ!

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Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

1 quart strawberries

1½ cups chocolate chips (milk, semi-sweet, or bittersweet)

¼ cup white chocolate chips (optional)

Wash strawberries well. Lay on cloth until completely dry. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Melt chocolate chips in a small bowl in microwave, stirring well every ten seconds. Watch carefully; chocolate will burn easily. Or, place chocolate in a glass or metal bowl, place over a smaller saucepan with an inch of water in it, and melt on the stove, stirring continually.

To dip strawberries, hold each strawberry by the stem and roll slowly in chocolate. Leave some red showing at the top. Place on parchment paper and refrigerate.

If desired for decoration, melt the white chocolate chips. Place melted chocolate in a small zippered bag and cut a tiny hole in one corner. Drizzle over cooled chocolate strawberries and refrigerate again.

Let strawberries sit at room temperature 15 minutes before serving.

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