Keep Still!

I'm nearing the end of reading "Having a Mary Spirit" by Joanna Weaver. I read this the other night in the chapter on "Speaking Love" and thought it worth sharing.

"Keep still! When trouble is brewing, keep still! When slander is getting on its legs, keep still! When your feelings are hurt, keep still till you recover from your excitement at any rate! Things look different through an unagitated eye.

In a commotion once I wrote a letter and sent it, and wished I had not. In my later years I had another commotion and wrote another long letter; my life had rubbed a little sense into me, and I kept that letter in my pocket until I could look it over without agitation, and without tears, and I was glad I did - less and less it seemed necessary to send it. I was not sure it would do any harm, but in my doubtfulness I learned reticence, and eventually it was destroyed.

Time works wonders! Wait till you can speak calmly and then perhaps you will not need to speak. Silence is the most powerful thing conceivable, sometimes. It is strength in its grandeur; it is like a regiment ordered to stand still in the mad fury of battle. To plunge in were twice as easy. Nothing is lost by learning to keep still"

~ From "Streams in the Desert & Springs in the Valley"

Silence really can be golden, and the simple fact that I have an opinion doesn't mean I have to share it. I think this is a novel idea for the quiet-impaired like myself °Ü°

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. ~ Psalm 141:3