In terms of the spirit, gender does not matter. Gender is of the world. And yet male and female are different energies. Thoughts of God the Father or God the Mother express different energy, and evoke slightly different energy from you. But you are everything, and so you are male and female, and yet you transcend all that.

You are like a flute with high notes and deep notes.

You are an expression of My love.

In Human life, is the male self considered more impersonal than the female self? Is he considered stronger, and does that mean less tender?

But all are My children, and all are tender. There is not one who is not.

You may have hardened yourself, but you would not even have that thought unless you were tenderness itself.

Male or female, you do not have to be tough.

You do not need a rough exterior.

You do not need an exterior at all.

Be one with yourself. If you are you and not someone else, then be who you are. You do not need to prepare yourself for battle. You need to dismantle your armor.

There would be no need for weeping if there were not armor. Armor braces itself, and then it is hit.

You do not need to prepare yourself for love either. You will not break.

When you accept your tenderness, you will tender the Earth and its inhabitants. When you accept your tenderness, you will have removed obstacles.

You do not need to swagger.

You do not need to prove anything.

All you have to do is be. Why does that seem so hard? When you let down your defenses, only your defenses will fall. You will not fall. You will rise. Tenderness is a high vibration.

Tenderness is not weakness. Pretense is weakness. Any pretense is weakness. Pretense is a managed cover-up. Pretended tenderness is no better than pretended strength.

Find out what is real about you. Fool yourself no longer.

When you know the realness of you, you will know the dissembling of others, and their façade will break before your very eyes. You will know when smiles are smiles or when they are false. You will also know the truth underlying roughness.

Unless you become familiar with your tenderness now, you will become embittered. I know you do not want to be bitter.

Bitterness comes as a result of denial of self. If you deny your sweetness, what can you come to be but bitter? If you feel bitterness, you have withheld your sweetness.

A rose does not hesitate to be a rose. It does not say that its sweetness and rose color will be misunderstood. A rose does not contract itself in an attempt to hide. A rose rises to the sun and unfolds its petals. A rose does not make it hard for others to know who and what it is. A rose does not hide itself or disfigure itself. It merely expresses its roseness.

What are you expressing? Are you less than a rose?

I think not.

I think you are the same as a rose. Only you ramble more, and you have more brambles.

"But a rose has thorns," you say. "What about a rose's thorns?"

They are part of a rose, but they are not part of you. The thorns strengthen the rose's stem, but thorns do not grow naturally on you. Do not adopt thorns to you because they are not part of who you are. My Human children are thornless, but they are not helpless.

So long as you think you are helpless, you will grow thorns.

You need no defense. Stop growing them. They separate you. They do not embellish you. They detract from you.

Be the flute, the rose, the being that you are. Be My child on earth, and rise to the occasion. You are the occasion of Me.