Great Great Experiment of Gentleness

We did church differently today.  Over the past 3+ months, our church has been learning about the great great gift of the gentleness of Jesus through the book of Ephesians.  Today was the culmination and collectively but separately putting into place what we have learned...which we called The Great Great Experiment of Gentleness.  We did not meet in our church building to worship together today, but we "did church" following these steps of the experiment:

Step 1: Listen to the Holy Spirit

Step 2: Obey His missional impulses

Step 3: Complete the Experiment

Step 4: Send your results to the church office

So, although I still don't like the fact that most youth wrestling tournaments are on Sundays, that is how we were able to attend the tournament this morning.  It was neat to be able to encourage the kids and spend some time getting to know those families better! That was the first part of our "experiment."

When we got home, I warmed some soup I made yesterday, and we went out into our neighborhood to sing Christmas carols and deliver it.  When folks did answer their doors, we sang Joy to the World to them and gave them the warm soup.  I had planned to give the soup to 3 elderly couples who live right near us, but some of them either weren't home or didn't answer their doors.  We knocked on several doors, but at several houses no one answered.  But, some of the folks who did answer mentioned that they hadn't been feeling well and would enjoy the soup this evening.  I thought it was pretty neat that even though the people I "planned to bless" weren't all home, the Lord led us to those who could really use the warm soup right then.  God is so cool! His ways are much higher than mine!

The final part of our gentleness experiment day we spent at home enjoying family time relaxing together.  There were some lightsaber and dart gun "fights," and we watched the second Star Wars movie. It was a great, great day.

"Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace." 

- Ephesians 4:2-3