Shh.

{"Dont be concerned about outward beauty or fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God." 1 Peter 3:3-4}

I needed to hear that today. 

I really struggle with being quiet. Literally, with my voice as well as figuratively in my spirit.  I am feeling challenged this day to be quiet in voice, which has interestingly crossed over to my spirit in many ways. 

My default settings are loud. I shout my kids names to get their attention, I raise my voice to get my point across, I have a naturally loud voice when I talk on the phone or get excited about anything. I would guess most people would not describe me as quiet on any level :)

It takes effort for me to be quiet.  The purposefulness of being quiet is good for me; its challenging, but good for me. 

I have heard of a "noise" fast. I love that idea. I would love to turn off all the noise, only speak in a whisper, not speak if at all possible. I love the idea of creating a physically quiet environment in order to quiet my spirit.

Truthfully, that is not very reasonable with three boys six and under running around. But I wonder how their default settings would be challenged if I worked on suppressing mine? Hmm. I may try that :)

On any count, I am working on quiet today. I am turning the tv off, purposefully keeping my voice to a low volume and even going to resist turning on music to fill the void.  When my children's voices or words get out of control we take "talking time outs". They have to have to put their finger on their mouths for a designated amount of time.  I am considering using that myself to remind me to be quiet...I bet they would love that! :)

Do you have any tips, thoughts, verses or ideas about how to remind yourself to be quiet?  Please share ...