Gentle persuasion

As I grow old I recognize my many mistakes. I struggle with patience and when I know something to be true I am like a 240 lb fullback wanting to drive it right up the middle. The Bible instructs us to not be like a bull in a china shop, rather to be gentle in our efforts to persuade.

I’m afraid that I have turned more than one person away from God by being too bullish. This grieves me greatly, because that is the last thing I want to accomplish. I now believe that if one cannot keep their composure while sharing the Word with an argumentative non-believer, that it is probably better not to share at all.

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2 Tim.23
But avoid foolish and ignorant
disputes, knowing that they generate
strife.
And a servant of the Lord must
not quarrel but be gentle to all,
able to teach, patient,
in humility correcting those who
are in opposition, if God perhaps
will grant them repentance, so that
they may know the truth,
and that they may come to their
senses and escape the snare of the
devil, having been taken captive by
him to do his will.