[W]hen we’re with those we feel less than secure with, we use words to "adjust" our appearance and elicit their approval. Otherwise, we fear our virtues might not receive adequate appreciation and our shortcomings might not be properly "understood." In not speaking, we resign how we appear (dare we say, how we are?) to God.
*Dallas Willard. The Spirit of the Disciplines.
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A primary Means of Grace in helping me to grow more in detaching from need to focus on protecting reputation has been Silence. Richard Foster, in Spiritual classics, writes:
Through the discipline of silence, then, we are learning to place our reputation in God’s hands. We no longer need to be sure everyone understands us or thinks well of us. We let go of even needing to know what they think of us. We are silent.
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In Silence we learn to relax in the Presence Who says in our deepest being, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" (St. John 14.18, ESV). We learn to receive, passively and trustingly, One who makes it possible for us to affirm: "Surely goodness and faithful love will always be with me, and I will live in the House of the Beloved always" (Psalm 23.6, Author’s Translation).
Silence is an affirmation that in our passive, loving openness to the Spirit, Love is ever-present and affirming our beauty and goodness in the eyes of the Beloved One.
