The Gentled Girlfriend: The Blog Title Explained

Girlfriends, throw on your oldest fleece pants (you know, the ones you wouldn’t be caught dead in, but can’t live without) and snuggle into your favorite nook and let me tell you a story…a story about how this blog got its name.

Girlfriends are those dear souls around me that become the voices in my head (yes...I have voices in my head).  They are the ones I don’t mind looking a fool around (which is often).  I never worry about their judgment when sharing taboo information about my most scandalous activities, because they share similar info with me. 

Girlfriends make you stronger and better.  That’s what this blog is about.  Girlfriends.  Sharing.  Building up.  Encouraging.  And the best way I know to do that is to give you an open door into my small struggles and trials as I try very hard to become the woman God would have me to be.

As for the “gentled” part of the blog title, it comes from my most favorite verse in the Bible.  It’s so amazing when I read a verse (for the hundredth time) and it hits me like a ton of bricks.  That’s what happened with 1 Peter chapter 3 where it talks about the characteristics of a godly woman.  Then, I read verse 4.  I’d read this so many times before, but had never paid much attention to the second part of the verse. 

1 Peter 4:4  (Emphasis mine) But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

Even though I went through a shy phase in my life, the real, true, deep-down girl was loud, impetuous, bossy, and confident in her wisdom and the need to share it with others.  I was not born with a gentle or quiet anything.  (Ask my sister.)

So, what was I supposed to do?  A gentle and quiet spirit is of great price in God’s sight.  After significant research, I couldn’t find any other passage that specifically said anything else was of great price in His sight and I realized that if I wanted to please my Father in Heaven I had no other option.  I had to figure out how to be gentle and quiet.  Oh dear.

It reminds me of wild horses that have the strength to overpower anyone around them, but they become gentled when they choose to submit to their masters.  In the same way, my spirit was wild and untamed and had the ability to overpower and trample others around me.  But, now I am learning that, as I submit to the Master’s will, I am slowly becoming a gentle and quiet spirit.

Thus, the title of this blog.  The gentled girlfriend.  It’s a process that God and I are working on together.  And as girlfriends share things that no one else has the privilege of knowing about each other, I plan to share my struggles with you.  Maybe in that way I’ll be an encouragement to you and spare you an agony or two as you avoid my mishaps.  This may not always show me in the best light, but it may be a blessing to you to know that you’re not alone on this path. 

Quietly Gentled,

Carrie