“Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” Titus 2:3-5
This passage is PACKED with accountability and conviction. It assumes many things about both women:
1. Know the word of God
2. Have a job description, that needs to be reflected without hypocrisy in their own life
3. Are in community
4. Are to live in a way that honors God
4. Are older and younger in relation to women around them
5. Is living the life she is teaching the younger to do
As we head into the new year remember that you are the older and the younger woman. Live your life in a way that provides a GOOD example of what a woman in that stage of life who honors the Lord does. Especially if you are a single woman, live like someone is watching; because someone IS watching. Whether you realize it or not the Lord is watching first of all, but the girls that are younger than you- physically and spiritually are watching how you live. My prayer is that the life they see is encouraging and exciting to them and honoring to the Lord. Live a life that honors the Lord because the world doesn’t show that. A teenage girl who has a crush on a boy assumes she should just go out with him, why? Because that is the example that the world has given. An older college graduate who moves back home and sits around working a part time job and lacks ambition needs encouragement and an EXAMPLE to follow. No thanks to movies like “Failure to Launch” or Health Care Reform that now allows dependents to age 26 receive full benefits from mommy and daddy. Choose the better, choose the option that allows you to trust God the MOST and be the BEST representation of God’s will and word in your life. Remember…just because the world offers it doesn’t mean you have to take it.
The next topic this brings me to is an admonishment to have a younger girl. Find one girl that is younger than you and take her in. Now this sounds daunting and like a big responsibility and you probably don’t know what you would say or do with them. Well let me tell you, you are in the right spot. All you need to do is let them live life with you. Let them watch you drive (hello!), let them hear you talk on the phone to your mom (uuhhhh), let them see your spending habits, let them see your home, your bedroom, let them look on your ipod. Take her on errands, teach her how to honor her parents, show her how to be kind to her friends, talk through all those areas of life that you didn’t have anyone talk with you about when you were her age. Just let her be yours. This will do 2 things at least: It will challenge you to be accountable to some areas you might have let slipped and it will be an example to a younger girl about how she should be living and that you aren’t perfect, but you know a perfect God. You don’t have all the answers, but you know the One who does.
Look around you, is there a young girl in the church that you know? Pray that God would bring someone to mind. Mention it to her parents and see if you can invite her to ice cream, go for a walk, go do something you enjoy doing. If you can’t think of anyone, that is a good indicator that you need to get plugged into the body of Christ yourself, and find someone older to encourage you.
Have you ever had a mentor? Do you wish you had? What things can you think of to do with someone younger? Be watching for a list 0f 100 things to do with a younger and 100 questions to ask her. For right now, just be looking for a younger and invite her to ice cream. and post your good idea below.