“Since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with... gentleness...” (Colossians 3:12, NLT)
The word is “meekness”. That’s not weakness, it’s strength under control.
When I was working in dairy farm construction, our crew put in a comfort-stall barn for an Amish family in Indiana. There were children all over the place ranging in age from older teens to toddlers. I especially enjoyed 5-yr-old Levi.
They farmed with horses – the big Belgians – huge and powerful. Little Levi could walk upright under those horses and not bump his head on their bellies. One day a team of Belgians was standing in the barnyard strapped to a hitching bar lying on the ground behind them. That bar could be hitched to wagons or other equipment to be pulled by the team.
Levi’s father told him his brothers need the team in the field. So that little guy picked up the reins, stepped onto the bar, and shouted a command at the horses. They obeyed his command and he drove them off, riding on the hitch. That’s power under control.
We like to be powerful. But apparently God wants us to show real power by our gentleness.