Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.
1 Peter 3:3-4
How do we respond when we have been wronged? Hurt by others? Suffer for doing what is right? Our Lord calls us to respond as women in a way different from the world. He desires us to put on a gentle and quiet spirit, one that reveals Him to the world around us and brings Him glory in all the circumstances of our lives.
Being gentle and meek doesn't mean you have to change your personality. If you are an outgoing person, the Lord created you that way. Each of us has our own unique personality. You can be a quiet person on the outside and not have a meek and gentle spirit on the inside.
What does it mean to have a gentle (or meek) and quiet spirit? Paul describes Christ as meek and gentle in 2 Corinthians 10:1:
I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!—
2 Corinthians 10:1
“Gentleness has been described as strength under control, which is a good definition. But it also speaks to the idea of peace; a woman who is meek or gentle is a woman who is at peace in her heart, no matter what the rest of her life is like. She has no need to fight for her agenda or to resist her husband's will. She finds a lasting, imperishable peace in Christ, which no circumstance can take away from her.”
~Karen Eiler, The Excellent Wife Day by Day
“Here in a gentle and quiet spirit is beauty that never decays, as the outward body does. ‘Gentle' is actually ‘meek' or ‘humble' and ‘quiet' describes the character of her action and reaction to her husband and life in general. Such is precious not only to her husband but also to God.”
~John MacArthur
Let me leave you today with this prayer that is my prayer too for the Lord to continue to cultivate in my heart a meek and gentle spirit:
Related Post:
Cultivating a Gentle Spirit
Adorned: Living Out the Beauty of the Gospel Together by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth
The Excellent Wife Day by Day by Karen Eiler
What a great post and a great reminder as to how we should respond. Sometimes it’s so easy to just snap at people when they’ve hurt us or rubbed us the wrong way, but God’s way is so much better.
What a great topic! As a former blunt, rude, and harsh communicator, this has been a lesson in progress for me since becoming a follower of Christ. Thank you for breaking it down so well here!
The same line stood out to me as well. “That I may be the only one to suffer from them”
So often we want others to wallow in our misery with us. As the saying goes: If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. I don’t want that to be true in my house!
Mary Beth
This is a special post. I skimmed through it the other day and came back to with more time and copied the quotes at the bottom.
I always appreciate your blog!!
Great post! This is something that I have really been thinking and praying about. It is hard to understand what meek and quiet means in our current day and age. No, I’m rarely quiet, but I have found that if I slow down on some of my talking, I am less likely to regret what I say.
Great post. The Lord has plenty of work to do on me in this area.
I especially liked this part: so that I may be the only one to suffer from them.
(You mean not giving it back or passive aggressively punishing someone?!)
Jesus create in me a clean heart!
Emily
http://www.weakandloved.com
Great post! I think its important to also remember that in this age of technology it is so much easier for people to forget to be humble and meek because they aren’t face to face with the person.
I fell into that trap not that long ago…I felt attacked by a comment and while I didn’t react by lashing out and being mean…I didn’t respond as I should have..but if I had been face to face 1)the person would have never said anything and/or 2) I wouldn’t have reacted the same way.
Of course, technology also does allow us to think very carefully about the words that we choose, lets us look up the Scripture and be wise, humble and meek…if we choose to use the technology that way (which we need to). 🙂