Saturday Devotions

I Peter 3:3-4

     Do not let your adornment be merely outward – arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel – rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. 

     Once again we are reminded to always maintain a heart to please God and not men.  If a woman’s goal is to catch a man’s eye, she can do that by making herself look attractive.  Hair and jewelry and clothes, adjusted just so can often have their desired effect on a man.  But what catches a man’s eye does not impress God in the least.  The eyes of the Lord are indeed roaming to and fro across the whole earth (II Chronicles 16:9)” but He is not looking for pretty people.  He is looking for those with “a gentle and quiet spirit” which He finds “very precious.”  For those of us blessed with a boisterous personality or the tendency to bellow like the sons of Boanerges (Luke 9:54), it may seem daunting to become “gentle and quiet.”  But we cannot dismiss this verse just because our natural tendencies go against it any more than a timid person can dismiss scripture’s calls to be bold.  Let us all seek to be gentle and of a quiet spirit – but it is reasonable to say, based on these verses, that women especially ought to seek to be gentle and of a quiet spirit – because this trait is very pleasing to our Lord.  In Psalm 18:35, David credits God with blessing him with success, and remarkably David says, “Your gentleness has made me great.”  May the women of today seek to imitate God and make their sons and husbands great through their own gentle spirit.  And may those who do so find that “Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her (Proverbs 31:28).”