Silence, as someone has said, is the mother of prayer and the nurse of holy thoughts. Silence cuts down on our sins, doesn't it? We can't be sinning in so many different ways if we are being quiet before God. Silence nourishes patience, charity, discretion.
Interpretation
Silence fosters contemplation and moral reflection, leading to inner virtues.
In this quote, Elisabeth Elliot emphasizes the profound impact of silence on personal spirituality and moral behavior. By advocating for quietness before God, she suggests that silence allows individuals to reflect on their thoughts and actions, leading to greater virtues such as patience and charity while minimizing sinful behavior.
In practice
During a meditation session, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of silence.
We are not asked to SEE," said Amy. "Why need we when we KNOW?" We know--not the answer to the inevitable Why, but the incontestable fact that it is for the best. "It is an irreparable loss, but is it faith at all if it is 'hard to trust' when things are entirely bewildering?
Prayer lays hold of God's plan and becomes the link between His will and its accomplishment on earth. Amazing things happen, and we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit's prayer.
What sort of world might it have been if Eve had refused the servants offer and had said to him instead, βlet me not be like God. Let me be what I was made to be - let me be a woman'?
Worship is not an experience. Worship is an act, and this takes discipline. We are to worship ''in spirit and in truth.'' Never mind about the feelings. We are to worship in spite of them.
Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands.
If your goal is purity of heart, be prepared to be thought very odd.
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life some rain must fall
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.
Investigate what is, and not what pleases.
You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.
It is the unknown that excites the ardor of scholars, who, in the known alone, would shrivel up with boredom.
Everything requires time. It is the only truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable, and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time.
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