Sisters, everything about us shows others what we believe. Our words do. Our priorities do. The way we speak to our husband and children shows what we believe about what God has commanded to women. The way we take care of our homes, even the food we make, tells others what kind of woman we are and if we are obeying God’s commands given in Titus 2: 3-5.
As the years grow long and eternity draws nearer, will we be able to look back and say that we used our time for the glory of the Lord and the good of His daughters? Did we serve, obey, teach, and love as He has commanded? When our lives are measured against the Word of God, will it proclaim that we believed God and obeyed Him? Will it show younger women that His ways are good and worthy of obedience?
In Titus 2: 3-5, Scripture gives older women a very particular calling: The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
These are not merely suggestions for women who desire to obey them. We are called to these things. To obedience. We are called to teach younger women. This is part of God’s design for His church. Older women are to live lives befitting holiness. They are to teach that which is good, as defined by God.
When I was younger, I desperately needed an older Christian woman to teach me. My mother hadn’t taken this command seriously. When I started asking older women for help, the answer that I got was no. I was told that they had already raised their children and were tired. They wanted time with their husband or grandchildren or both. They had taught Sunday School. They felt that they had earned a long period of simply relaxing. No one whom I asked, and I asked many different women over a period of years, took Titus 2’s command seriously. I asked. I pleaded. But no such woman ever came.
Much of what I learned about biblical womanhood I learned from the pages of books. I am thankful to the women who laid out such truths for me to learn from them, but books are not a substitute for an older woman faithfully teaching a younger.
Younger sisters need to see an older woman seeking holiness, refusing to gossip, and loving her husband and serve him during hard times and good. She needs to see a mother loving and training her children even when she is tired. Our younger sisters need to see us guarding our tongues, repenting when needed, showing hospitality to others, praying faithfully, and continuing to trust the Lord even when life is difficult. She needs not only to see it from afar but to be taught these things by such older women.
The Apostle Paul said, Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. This must define us. Our lives ought to be lived in such a way that we can call younger women to follow us as we follow Christ as we seek to fulfill God’s calling to us as women. As we fulfill His precious design for us.
Sisters, let us live in such a way that our daily lives, our choices in clothing and how we speak, our marriage and motherhood, our oh so ordinary days show younger women that indeed the ways of the Lord are always the best ways. May the Lord use us to teach the younger women what is good, just as He commanded us.
And may it always be for His glory.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Photo by Brayan Guzman Cortez: https://www.pexels.com/photo/elderly-woman-in-floral-dress-standing-in-the-field-14183652/
Beautiful, thank you!
Many younger women are hungry for an older woman in their lives. I had the same experience as you, longing for an older woman in my life, but never had any.
Now that I am on older woman I do my best to be that older woman. I had an experience a few years back where I saw a young woman begin to wear more revealing clothes than she used to. I awaited an opportunity to speak with her and finally caught her alone. She humbly received what I had to say, but what happened next changed my life. She waited (because I was talking to friends) close to an hour after the service to catch me to speak to me. Then she approached me and thanked me profusely for stopping her on the wrong path, and told me she wanted be a Titus 2 woman; to walk in such a way as to be able to speak to younger women as I had just done.
Thank you for being there for younger women. I’m praying for more women who will be.