Gentle and Quiet

Hey Surfers! This week I have the joy of bringing you another guest post, written by my friend Kaylen Richardson! She is crazy-nice and a great Spiritual leader. I hope you enjoy her wisdom, as you read this post on "gentleness." 

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.” 1 Peter 3:3-4

This summer I did a fairly intense study on 1 Peter. Of all the things I learned, this verse hit me pretty hard. I have heard this verse a million and one times, but I can honestly say I have never been known to be the quiet type. So this summer, when I heard this verse again, I really had to ask myself: "do I have a gentle and quiet spirit?" WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? Then I realized that God isn’t telling us that if we are not the quiet type that we are not worth anything. But he is asking us to be more like him.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” Galatians 5:22-23.

When you decide to live out a spirit-filled life, you will become gentle and quiet. You have to start letting the Lord rule over everything you do. I pray that I am living a spirit-led life every day, and I can tell that there is a difference. When I am ruling over my own life I become very self centered, I get stressed really easily, and I become someone that not many people want to be around. Nothing about that is gentle or quiet. Nothing about that is Jesus. We are told to be gentle, because Jesus is gentle. People are turned away by harshness.

If we are living out our purpose in life as being God’s hands and feet and bringing more people to him, then we have to start striving to look more and more like him. This is just one way we can do that. It’s very clear by the last part of that verse that God finds joy in seeing us look and act like Him. I want to please the Lord; I want Him to find favor in me.

So I pray that you find encouragement in this. I hope you can look at this verse as a goal to be working on your inside spirit more than your outside looks. David prays a prayer in Psalm 18:35 that I really love: “You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great.”

Let’s make it our goal to be GREAT.

-Kaylen