Here are some loose strands from various places for your growth:
How to Draw Near to God: Learning Prayer from the Puritans – Jeremy Walker (DG)
As we listen to Puritan and Puritanesque praying, putting our ears to their doors, what do we hear? What can we seek to imitate?
Radical Christian Gentleness in an Era of Addictive Outrage – George Marsden (TGC)
…we live in an age when social media puts an immense premium on cultivating anger and indignation. We’re experiencing a pandemic of addictive outrage that spreads uncontrollably on the internet. Polarized political hostilities have made the situation worse, and Christians of all sorts, whether on the right or left, are hardly immune.
Are You a “Yeah, But…” Christian? – Tim Challies
I have long observed a fascinating but concerning tendency when I read one of the Bible’s clear commands. I have observed it in myself and I have observed it in others. It’s the tendency to turn quickly from what the Bible does command to what it does not, from the plainest sense of one of God’s directions to a list of exceptions or exclusions. It’s the tendency to hear what God says and immediately reply, “Yeah, but…”
The Spiritual Promise the Cinema Can’t Deliver – Trevin Wax
All this is spiritual language. When the lights dim, spiritual illumination begins. All this is tapping into the deepest longings of humanity—for connection, for growth, for inspiration, and for stories that bring resolution.
Flashback: The Savior’s Example
If you think him a harsh taskmaster, then that is how you will treat others. But if we grasp that Jesus is gentle towards us – if we rest in his gentle heart, then we can learn from him and share his gentleness with those around us.
Brian J. Mikul 
I’ve been a Christian 50 years. At the end of 30 years, I came to a crossroad. I was burnt out on all the efforts to gain God’s approval. I had given up as much bad as I could and added as much good. I heard Brennan Manning speak one Sunday on the tenderness of Christ. When he said it, I thought to myself, ‘Yea, right.’ To that point with me all I knew was that he was demanding. No matter how much I gave up, there was always a little more. No matter how much I added, there was always a little more.
The crossroad I came to was not that I would give up on Christianity, but whether I would give up on trying to find what I knew being a Christian should be like. Would I just spend the rest of my life coasting – taking up pew space . . . or would I, one more time, go for it. Glad I chose the latter.
After that sermon that Sunday, I went to Matthew, to read for myself; and this is what I found. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” All along, he was not the one doing the demanding. It was the enemy of my soul; and I had missed it. Sweet now though.