A Quiet and Gentle Spirit....or not

Today I attended the funeral service for a long-time family friend.  She was 90 and had been friends with both my mother and mother-in-law.  She had also been my son's Sunday School teacher when he was a preschooler. She was a sweet lady.  The minister conducting the service referred to the verse in I Peter that exhorts women to have "the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."  He proclaimed this lady to be a good example of such a woman.


When the time comes, I do NOT expect this verse to be used in my funeral service.


I am not trying to say anything negative about this departed friend or any other woman with a gentle and quiet spirit.  I have known some perfectly intelligent and creative women who would also fit in the gentle and quiet category.  A woman with such a spirit is not necessarily a submissive doormat.


But, I am genuinely hoping, in fact, believing, that there is a place in God's plan and kingdom for those of us with other tendencies.  My spirit tends more toward being demonstrative and exuberant.  Gentle?  I can do gentle when I am handling a baby, when I am trying to comfort someone who is wounded in body or spirit, or when I have already tried exuberance and had the situation blow up in my face.  Quiet?  Oh, wow...can I do quiet?  Maybe when I'm reading or sleeping.  Most of the rest of my life has been spent laughing, talking, singing or engaged in some noise-making physical endeavor like vacuuming or mowing or banging pots and pans.


Of course, I suppose a noisy woman could have a quiet spirit.  The minister interpreted this as someone who was calm and accepting of life's circumstances.  I'm not sure that describes me either.  Sometimes life's circumstance do have to be accepted, but there are times when someone needs to step up to the plate and change those circumstances.  That would be when you want me around.


Twenty four years ago, I was sitting in an auditorium when someone in the row behind me stood up and called out, "Somebody do something!"  I looked down my row.  An elderly woman was slumped over and ashen.  Beads of perspiration stood out on her forehead. She was obviously not breathing.  The rows were narrow, so I don't really remember how I got by the 3 or 4 people sitting between us.  I think I more or less dove over them.  I yanked out her dentures and dropped them in the lap of the lady sitting next to her.  I suspect she was startled, but it seemed perfectly logical to me at the time.  I tilted her head, pulled her jaw forward and began mouth to mouth resuscitation.  People jumped out of adjacent seats and helped me lay her out on the bench, so that I could resuscitate more effectively.  She revived and began breathing on her own.


Later than evening, a minister who heard about it decided to tease me.  He said, "How did you know God didn't want her in heaven tonight?"
When my husband and I were alone, I repeated to him what the minister had said.
My husband's response:  "Oh, my dear, if God wanted her in heaven this evening, He knew better than to let you sit in the same row."


I believe that there is a place in God's plan for women who jump up and do what needs to be done, whether or not it can be done quietly and gently.


I wonder what verse will be cited at my funeral.  Unless there is a lobotomy in my future, I'm guessing that it won't be I Peter 3:4.