{ A Quiet Heart }

“If we are pre-occupied with ourselves, trying to fulfill ourselves …

do you know what we are asking for there?

We are asking for the kind of peace that the WORLD can give.

But when we let go of ourselves, and put ourselves totally at the disposal of God,

He gives us His kind of peace – supernatural peace – the kind that the world can never give.

The quietness of my heart is the fruit of an absolute confidence in good.

That is a source of a quiet heart…

Every assignment is measured and controlled for my eternal good.

As I accept the given portion other options are cancelled.

Decisions become much easier, directions clearer,

and hence my heart becomes inexpressibly quieter.”

– Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart

Early morning, the snow started coming down.  I was an adult when I first saw snow, first felt it, touched it and played out in it.  Growing up, the only snow I ever saw was what we would see on TV, in movies.

I fell in love with it, it's coldness and all.  To this day, one of the things I love the most is a good snow day, just to see the huge flakes coming down, listening to the quiet and watching as it blankets the earth in the whitest of whites.

We don't get a lot of snow in our town, so when it does happen, I take full advantage of it's beauty.  Shivering I stepped outside with my camera and just started snapping.

As cold as it was, I bundled up, and just sat.  Quietly, watching, the silence interrupted every minute or so by the click of the camera.  I felt peace.

Our lives are constantly filled with noise, so much noise, so much busy, so much chaos.  I sometimes feel that my mind is constantly on the go, thoughts and ideas, things I want to do, see, try.  It's quite overwhelming at times.

I saw that quote by Elisabeth Elliot and found it so poignant and true, and something I so aspire to reach within me.

I want to have a quiet heart.  I want to be able to quieten down the constant barrage of noise and information and problems that come my way.  There's always something to shift me from a quiet place to a place of anxiousness and stress, and I don't like it.

After a while of just sitting and watching the snow around me, I came back into the house with a renewed sense of purpose.

“Today is mine. Tomorrow is none of my business. If I peer anxiously into the fog of the future, I will strain my spiritual eyes so that I will not see clearly what is required of me now.” - Elisabeth Elliot

How simple, to the point, but incredible, is that?

I had planned on doing absolutely nothing today, but those plans didn't quite work out, because I felt the need and the calling to work around my home, to do the things I usually do on a daily basis, but to put even more effort into.

And so I got my laundry all finished and put away, changed the bed linens, opened the curtains and blinds, made a divine Hot Fudge Cake in the Crockpot (yes in the crockpot, and I will share that recipe tomorrow), and for dinner fixed a yummy loaded macaroni and cheese that screamed comfort food.

Keeping a quiet heart......it is not as difficult as one would imagine, but it does take effort to tune out all the unnecessary noise, because we're so used to it just being there that we often don't even realize just how loud it really is.

There is nothing quiet or peaceful about the world we currently live in.  I find everyone so frantic, so unsettled and upset, the total opposite of what a quiet heart is.

It's easy to get caught up in it all and no matter how often we may tell ourselves to not take the bait, to not indulge or include ourselves in certain situations, the plain truth is that social media and the internet in general seems to pull us right in, doesn't it?

So I'm asking God to help me have a quiet heart, in every area in my life.  To help me not be so quick to anger or quick to react and to learn to be still,but above all to quieten my heart and learn to live a calmer life, not allowing outside forces to influence my well being.

I'm pretty sure that is not going to be an easy thing to achieve, but I'll give it my best shot, nonetheless.