What Is a Quiet Life?

A couple of years after my husband, Steele, and I were married, my mother-in-law gifted us with what has become one of our most treasured possessions: a beautiful chalk-lettering print by artist Dana Tanamachi. It’s a print that features the popular saying “Live a quiet life and work with your hands.” Her gift was incredibly thoughtful because we had just completed a year and a half of renovations on our first house. For eighteen months, Steele and I poured everything—blood, sweat, tears, and a whole lot of money—into our two-story brick bungalow in St. Louis City. With the help of family and friends, we turned a run-down house into our home. And we were thrilled. We were young newlyweds working modest jobs who had just completed a huge project. At the time, we felt like our life together embodied the saying that hung in our renovated kitchen.

Over the years, I’ve given much thought to what it truly means to live a quiet life and work with my hands. In our nearly eight years of marriage, Steele’s career has taken us to three different states and five different cities. We have made our home in four different apartments and three different houses. Currently, we’ve set up shop in our third house, which we moved into when we were expecting our son and immediately began home improvement projects. 

When I think about “a quiet life,” ours does not come to mind.

In my quest to better understand the saying on our treasured piece of artwork, I’ve read and re-read the passage in the Bible from where this saying ultimately comes. In the following passage, Paul urges the people in the city of Thessalonica to—among other things—make it their ambition to lead a quiet life and work with their hands. He says this:

“Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12) 

So here’s what I’ve come up with: living a quiet life isn’t about living out of the way or living in the shadows; and working with your hands certainly does not exclude all work but manual labor or working the land. Rather, it’s my belief that leading a quiet life and working with your hands is about leading a life that ultimately points others to Christ. 

Whether you are a homemaker or a bricklayer, a CEO or an elected official, a teacher or an engineer—whoever you may be and in whatever situation in life you find yourself, it is my prayer that the content on this site provides you with encouragement and inspiration for your daily life, a life that ultimately points others to Jesus, the author of all life . . . including the simple and quiet one. 

After all, it’s quite simple to lead a quiet life—it’s just not necessarily easy. 

Welcome to Simquily!