I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 22nd of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in Isaiah 42:3:

”A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench;…”

We’re talking about the gentleness of our beloved Lord Jesus. And that same scripture is confirmed in Matthew 12:20:

”A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench,…” 

Just the other day, I heard a beautiful saying, ”We are strongest when we are tender.” You know, if you look at Proverbs 15:1, the Lord talks about a gentle answer turns away anger and wrath. Jesus is so gentle.

I want to tell you something now, He is the most tender person who has ever walked on the face of this earth. He will not hurt you. We need to be the same.

I love watching a bushman when he wants to start a fire. Unlike many of us, he doesn’t go with a fire-lighter, put half a ton of wood on the fire and cause an explosion to make the fire so that he can have his braai or his barbecue! No, he comes and he takes a little bit of grass and he takes that stick and he spins that stick on a log and he blows gently on it and what happens? It just bursts into flame. So beautiful to watch.

On our farm here, you know by now, we love horses. Snowy is my horse, he’s twenty years old now. I want to tell you something now, there’s a man by the name of Monty Roberts, he’s in his late eighties, and he is the one they call ”The Horse Whisperer.” He started off getting a horse under saddle by being gentle with it. You see, in the old days, his father was one of them, actually; they would tie that poor horse up so that he couldn’t walk, he had to hobble. They would beat him till they broke his spirit. That’s where the saying goes, ”I’m going to break in a horse.” No, we don’t do that on this farm. We gentle a horse, tenderly, and that horse will take the bridle, take the saddle. He’ll be spirited, he’ll have lots of personality. He won’t be broken and crushed. We must do the same with each other.

Mom, don’t break your daughter down, be tender with her and she will make you so proud. Dad, don’t be hard on your son, be gentle with him. This is a tough world that we live in. Be tender with him and he’ll be tender with others.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.