A Quiet Spirit

Your adornment must not be merely external...

but let it be the hidden person of the heart,

with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit,

which is precious in the sight of God.

I Peter 3:4

     I'm naturally a quiet person.  I am reserved, I don't have a lot to say, sometimes even to my husband.  I love silence, though it often seems in short supply here.  Being by nature quiet isn't what God considers precious.  God looks at my heart and even if you think I have mastered the "quiet spirit," God knows my true state of being.  I have one daughter who is just like me.  She's sweet and soft spoken, always listening and watching, willing to go unnoticed by others.  Then I have another daughter who talks.  She started talking earlier than all my other babies.  She was singing little songs at 18 months.  She reads aloud, not silently.  She talks to herself in the bathroom.  She talks in her sleep.  Her words come fast and furious, sometimes so slurred together her family can't understand her.  She is full, full up to the top, of life and joy.  She too can have a "gentle and quiet spirit," without changing the personality God blessed her with.  In the margin of my Bible beside this verse I've written in the reference to Isaiah 32:17,

    

The fruit of righteousness will be peace;

and the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence

forever.

     God gives me His righteousness in Christ and the effect of His righteousness in my heart is quietness.  Is my heart raging and murmuring against God and my husband?  Is my heart wrestling against my life?  Is my heart bitter in disappointment?  Or am I gentle and quiet, is my heart still, at rest in Christ, though my day seems all wrong?  You see, it's not about how many words I speak, it's about a quiet spirit.  A changed heart isn't something I can muster up on my own, it's God's work and when He sees His own handiwork in me, He calls it precious.  He calls me precious in His sight.