Being Gentle and Quiet in a Loud and Harsh World

Recently I had a conversation with a friend about our personalities...our boisterous personalities!

What do we do when our "personality" does not match up with scriptures like 1 Peter 3, which says women are to adorn themselves with "the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight"? Or Titus 2, which says that young women are to be discreet, which means "to show prudence and wise self-restraint in speech and behavior...to be cautious"?

Do we just shrug and say, "that's just not me" or "that's just not my personality"?

Those are all things I have said in the past. And now, I'm learning and struggling to obey the right response to this Word...

Scripture calls me to be these things: gentle, quiet, and discreet (and so much more, but this is where I struggle right now). Therefore, I must conform to scripture and stop making excuses like, "that's just not who I am".

The truth is, my "personality" is a result of how I was raised and the friends I fellowshipped with...not what I read in scripture and tried to become.

Now that I am an adult, I am trying to become these things that are "of great worth in God's sight". Does it mean I can't be fun-loving and out-going? No, but it does mean I must stay under the authority of the Bible when it tells me to adorn myself with gentleness and quietness and to be self-controlled in my speech and behavior.

I strongly desire to conquer my fleshly tendencies and become submissive to God's design for me as a woman, and I believe this is another step towards that. It's hard, but it is freeing at the same time!

I believe the feeling of freedom comes from being in God's will. It would be foolish for me to look at the fruits of the Spirit and say, "Joy is just not a part of my personality" or "God just didn't make me a patient person" or "I can't be self-controlled, that's just not in my character traits". But instead, when I see a Truth, I want my response to be a God-fearing 'burden' to conform to His Word. Because when I am hidden in Him and His Word, I am free to be all He created me to be!