Dear Older Women - Let's Start with "Us"

"Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.  They are to teach what is good, and so train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to 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 ESV).

I have wondered if we older women take this command seriously.  Perhaps it’s because, if you’re like me, you don’t know where to begin – how to go about teaching the younger women.  And maybe that confusion is due to our culture: We are busy; and, for the most part, we live in single-family dwellings and have little interaction with other families during our daily routine.  Aside from those obvious reasons, more and more women are working outside the home (That would be me!), and we are not “available” during  a large part of the day.  However, God’s instructions pertain to us now, in our culture, in our lifetime.  So we must find ways to carry out His instructions the best we can.

The word “train” in this passage means “to make of sound mind, discipline.”  Yes, it may involve correction.  What’s interesting to note is that “training” implies that something can be learned.  Within the context of Titus 2, women can learn to

• Love their husbands and children
• Be submissive to their husbands
• Be kind, pure, self-controlled
• Workers at home.

Questions to ask ourselves:

1. Am I training younger women?  If not, why not?
2. Do I have legitimate reasons for not fulfilling this role?  Or am I making excuses?
3. For every reason "why not," think of a way "how to."

Up next: Dear Young Women, are you willing to be trained?