Author: Kim

A Quiet Life

Published on by Kim3 Comments

…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. (I Peter 3:4)

Paul also urged prayer “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior…” (I Timothy 2:2-3).

What is a quiet life? If it pleases God, let’s seek that out and work toward having one!

The idea behind the words here is tranquil, defined by Webster’s as “free from agitation of mind or spirit…disturbance or turmoil.” Murray Harris noted on the word quiet in 1 Peter 3:4 — “a spirit which calmly bears the disturbances created by others and which itself does not create disturbances” (The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, 3:112).

When you look at your life, do you see quiet or turmoil? Are you handling the chaos around you calmly or creating even more? Many things make a difference on that, but let’s look at just a few.

  • First taking the time and making the effort to quiet your heart as you rest in the God Who is Enough and lean on His understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6) will set the right tone in every other area.
  • Doing a quick check of your schedule and workload to see what may be hurting your health will help also. The recent book Refresh does a great job of walking you through that process.
  • I Thessalonians 4:11 brings in the concept of minding our own work to the need to live quietly. Would a focus on our own responsibilities, while letting go of what isn’t our concern, help with getting rid of some agitation? It is so easy to be distracted, but the cost is high.
    Proverbs 31:27 also contrasts idleness with looking well to the ways of the household. Working when we should, at the right time, helps with keeping things on track and calm.
  • A calendar that you manage well will help a lot with a quiet day. Staying on task and doing what needs to be done will give you quiet progress. Not knowing what all should be done and always reacting to anything that happens by will create turmoil and overload your mind as you keep trying to keep up in the dark.

What have you found helpful as you quiet your heart and home?

Mind is Like an Attic

Published on by Kim

Any Sherlock Holmes fans out there?

He was a bit of an oddball, yes, but some of the quirks have things worth thinking about.

“I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.” (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet)

The basic principle of being careful about with what we fill up our minds is valid. Do you know the ins and outs of the latest popular TV series, but have trouble remembering the story of Ruth? Have you tried out every hobby known to woman, but Scripture memorization would just be too much time and effort?

Our brains are limited (more some days than others, am I right?), and that makes every thing we learn or remember valuable. The key is whether the value of the mind-space matches the value of what we stocked in it.