We’re going to take a break from our Christmas Prep to ponder what “quiet” looks like.
By: Heidi Jo Fulk
The word quiet has been very loud for me this year. It began as I chose this verse as I created some goals at the start of the new year…
I Peter 3:4—Instead, it (a woman’s beauty) should consist of what is inside the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very valuable in God’s eyes.
And it hasn’t stopped there. The word and the concepts of quiet have followed me like a shadow for months and months. So finally I decided to get to the bottom of it. I was preparing to spend time with some dear college friends for our annual Labor Day reunion, so I studied up and brought along my findings. (Quiet seemed appropriate for six moms without their 22 children for a couple days!)
When I started looking through Scripture to find definitions and examples of quiet, I was expecting things like be quiet. Peaceful. Calm. Silent. Self-controlled. Not busy. Not first to speak. And I did find those things.
Psalm 31:18—Let lying lips be quieted; they speak arrogantly against the righteous with pride and contempt.
Ecclesiastes 4:6—Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.
Zephaniah 3:17—The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by his love; He will exult over you with loud singing.
I didn’t want to rush past those kinds of verses because they’re truth and truth I need to know and live out. But I really started to get intrigued when I read these:
Psalm 131—Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I do not get involved with things too great or too difficult for me. Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself like a little weaned child with its mother; I am like a little child. Israel, put your hope in the Lord, both now and forever.
Isaiah 30:15—For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.”
Isaiah 32:17—The result of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever.
Do you see the same links I saw? Quiet with humility, wisdom, hope, peace, and strength.
It was the link to strength that stood out the most. Quiet is necessary at different times for different reasons and one of those is to allow us to rely on God to give us strength. To grow our strength by placing our hope and trust in Him. This kind of quiet shows me I need to stop striving to act or figure things out on my own and instead quiet myself. To quiet the “me” thinking and acting and come to an all-knowing, all-powerful God and allow Him to strengthen my heart and mind to think and act like Him.
What else did I discover about quiet? I’ll share more in the next post.
HEIDI JO FULK is passionate about encouraging woman and girls to love and live God’s word. She is wife to her high school sweetheart, Dan, and mom to their four young children — Emma Jo, Gretchen, Tucker and Brock. Heidi leads a women’s Bible study and an elementary girls’ ministry at her church.
Photo from: simplemarriage.com