Older Women

"Older women have an important role in church," spoke a much younger woman (a lawyer whom I have known since she was a toddler in Sunday School), not much older than my youngest son.

In one statement she catapulted me into a specific echelon, and handed me my job description. There were other older women in the room, but somehow, I took the jolting remark personally.

"It is in the scriptures that you have to teach the younger women," she was relentless.  Then she turned the pages of her Bible and read Titus 2:3-4.

"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 young women to love their husbands and children . . ."

I had read those verses before (many times), but God chose that day in a small group meeting and Atty. Karen to dig it in.

Reviewing my hurriedly written notes later, I read her points loud and clear.

“Teach and train young married women to:

"1. Love their husband;
2. Love their children;
3. Have discernment over what is right, and self control over what is wrong;
4. Keep the marriage honored by being pure;
5. Be busy at home—ministry in the home should be their top priority;
6. Do good deeds and be kind to others;
7. Submit to their husband.”    

Tough job.

I have not done any of the above—not consciously anyway.  Not once had I sat down with any of the young married women (most of whom are my godchildren in either child dedication or wedding rites). Many of our chats had centered on . . . maybe I had, one way or the other?

“Older women,” she added, “should model for us a life that honors God. From your lives, we can learn to give glory to our Creator with ours,” she continued. She and the young moms in our circle seem to be doing pretty well—happy and well-adjusted in their marriages.  I guess their mothers (my friends) taught them well.

And maybe they likewise saw a thing or two in me and learned from it . . . 

Karen was just a toddler when I first met her parents, now dear, forever friends who have big ears that listen and giant hearts that love God.

That toddler is now a lawyer . . .

. . . and a mother.

A distinguished lawyer, loving wife, and caring mother, Karen today has the gall to say to me, her mom, her titas in church, about what we might have forgotten to focus on—but thankfully, still have every chance to do so.

“This is not for us, neither is it for you,” she said to conclude her short talk. “You must do it so no one will malign the word of God.”

This job description is a document of grace, my heart spoke. And in total submission, it signed the conforme, pledging to the beat of a Titus 2 woman.