Meekness

Today I read Titus 3 Paul's closing to Titus. The phrase that stood out to me was Paul's counsel to Titus to be meek. It got me thinking about meekness and the world. Meekness is not a quality that is really prized among the worldly, which is sad because if we were all meek then there would be no crime and no contention. But in the world's eyes meekness is a synonym for weakness.

I looked up the definition for meek just to make sure I had the right one and its most common definition had to do with being submissive when under pressure. However, the one that I like and that I'm sure Paul was using is gentle and docile. Can you imagine if everyone in the world was gentle and docile? They would be slow to anger and would be a lot more pleasant to be around. I remember the first time I met my father-in-law, my wife, at the time fiancee said that he described me as a gentle-man. I mistakenly thought he meant gentleman but then my wife clarified saying no, he meant a gentle man. In a word he was calling me meek. I took it as a great compliment and so should any person described as such.

I don't know where this idea that we have to be macho men came from but I guarantee if we had to pick one of the two terms to describe Heavenly Father we would choose meek over macho. And since our goal is to be like Him, shouldn't we strive to be meek? And truly what is wrong with being gentle? You might get mocked for it but so what, let it roll off you like water off a duck's back. We should not be worried about the world but rather what God thinks about us. We should cultivate the qualities that Christ has and let the world fend for itself. As for me, I am going to emulate the Savior and I think we can all agree that meekness was one of His qualities so I want it counted as one of mine. But I guess everyone has to decide how they want to be for him/herself. Just decide quickly, time won't wait forever. Until tomorrow.