Teaching Younger Women

Last night after a phone conversation with my sweet little grandmother (81), I was inspired to make a country dinner.  One like she is famous for, pork chops, green beans, mashed potatoes and biscuits.  Just chatting with my dear precious granny made me want to cook like her.  She really is one of the best cooks ever.  My husband came in the house from playing outside with the boys while I was cooking and said, "Ahhh, it smells like a man's house in here"!  I knew exactly what he meant and it was a major compliment! 

Talking to my grandmother and cooking her kind of dinner got me thinking about the things she has taught me throughout my life, and not just her, but other women as well.  The bible says older women should teach younger women and that is exactly what my grandmother has done.  She has taught me about cooking and baking and working hard, among other things.  As I was thinking about this I realized that ALL older women are teaching younger women.  We are teaching whether we realize it or not.  I've been taught something by all the older women I have ever been around.  Some have taught me the importance of being meek and gentle and quiet, some have taught me about loving my husband and supporting him, and some have helped me with homeschooling my children and following God's path for my life.  There have also been those older women who have taught me what not to do.  Their example has shown me what I don't want to do with my children or what kind of relationship not to have with my husband.  You see, we are teaching by our attitudes, actions, behavior, and words.  We are teaching by the way we live our lives. 

It's not always the older grandmother type that are to teach the younger wives and mothers.  We moms with daughters are teaching younger women as well.  I'm teaching my daughter to cook and to clean and to work around the house and I am also teaching her how to reverence her future husband by the way I treat her father (I'm trying to).  Mothers of daughters are a key component of teaching younger women.  The years that our daughters are in our homes are important years for training and teaching and we older women (moms) must teach the younger women (daughters) to love God with their whole hearts and to serve others.  We must teach them how to take care of a home and how to raise children and how to work.  Childhood is a wonderful time and there is much playing and pretending and imagining and creating, but it is also a crucial time for learning important lessons. 

 Titus 2:3-5 says, Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored.  

We women must follow these instructions given to us in scripture.  What a blessing for women who are further down the path of life to encourage and share with women who are starting out.  Older women can be a huge help to younger women, especially if they are passing on biblical advice and not the world's wisdom.  Younger women are already being bombarded with plenty of worldly wisdom.  Older women have a precious opportunity to pass on sound biblical wisdom and encourage younger women in their important roles as wives and mothers.  Grandmothers have a unique position for teaching and should not take it lightly.  For centuries mothers and grandmothers trained daughters and we should certainly continue that today.  Look around you.  Maybe you are raising young daughters in your home, or maybe you have granddaughters, or maybe you have younger women in your church.  Wherever you are, there are younger women to teach.  Take time to follow the words of Titus 2 and be a blessing to the younger women God has placed in your life.