Living A Quiet Life
Photo by olia danilevich from Pexels
It’s strawberry June and my three girls and I have been picking strawberries every day for the past two weeks. Our strawberry patch has gotten a little unruly, and we can’t bear to leave any berries on the vine. We frequently fill three large bowls.
After the picking comes the washing, cutting, eating, baking, and sharing. Our summer days are spent with berries, but our evenings (what Andrew Peterson calls The Magic Hour) are often spent on bicycles or swings while my husband mows the grass. We live on almost seven acres of land with chickens, fruit trees, a vegetable garden, numerous plants, and of course, the strawberry patch.
My husband and I choose to live a quiet life, one that speaks to the Little House on the Prairie days of Laura or the Prince Edward Island days of Anne. We’re both old souls longing to leave the noise of the world. We homeschool our girls and only participate in a couple of activities at a time. Our sixteen-year-old hasn’t yet learned to drive.
This often feels counter-cultural and leaves me wondering if we’re “doing it right.” Are my girls missing out by not attending every summer camp and youth event? Are we disobeying God because we don’t go on mission trips and join every committee? I sometimes have felt that the answer is yes.
“My husband and I choose to live a quiet life… This often feels counter-cultural and leaves me wondering if we’re ‘doing it right.’”
A friend recently reminded me that leading a life for Christ is all about our personal relationship with him. Are we being obedient to the life he has called our family to live, even if it feels quieter than the lives my friends are living?
My sixteen-year-old daughter isn’t driving yet, but she’s opened her own business and is faithful in reading her devotional every day. My thirteen-year-old daughter is learning to serve others at a horse therapy center and becoming a great illustrator as she has hours each day to spend on her craft. My ten-year-old daughter loves to read and store up facts and interesting stories to share with others. My girls are learning to listen well, share, deliver handmade cards, and lean into their unique personalities and gifts.
We take to heart the verse in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 that says, “...aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.”
Does this mean that I think everyone should lead a quiet life or that my friends are doing it wrong? I don’t think so. I think we need to be in tune to what the Holy Spirit is whispering to our souls. Each family, each person, has a God-given place in this world.
“Each family, each person, has a God-given place in this world.”
My job is to stop comparing my life to others, “to be quiet in heart, and in the eye clear” as Wendell Berry says in his poem The Wild Geese. When I stop comparing or worrying what other people expect of us, I’m free to let my family bloom and ripen like the strawberries in our unruly patch.
