Your adornment must not be merely external — braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.
–1 Peter 3:3-5

I love the last part of 1 Peter 3:6 — the potential of a life that’s not frightened by any fear! How awesome is that! But what’s crazy is Peter is talking about Sarah — a woman who was taken by two godless kings into their houses. I would have been afraid!! And yet, she was not afraid because she trusted in God. And in her story, the Lord cast Himself as the knight in shining armor who, not once, but twice, defended her honor and got her out of those awful situations. (And He plays an awfully good hero, you have to admit: “King Abimelech, You’re a dead man!”) Sarah knew — knew that she knew that she KNEW — that as long as she was walking in His plan, He was ultimately responsible for her safety and future.

Submission’s greatest enemy in our hearts is fear. Yes, we have to get over our stubbornness, our pride, our American feminist independence, our plain old preferences. But when it comes down to it, when the rubber meets the road, it’s fear that can completely do us in. I mean, let’s face it: we’re being asked to put our life on the line by a fallible man. That doesn’t sound very secure. And it’s not — except that God Himself is part of this equation, and He’s ready to defend those who walk in obedience to Him.

For me, this lesson came while still a daughter. For years and years, I submitted to my dad because, yes, I knew I was supposed to (Ephesians 6 and all that!), but also because why not? He was really, really smart, and always knew what was best for me. (What can I say? I have a really great dad!) Then one day, as adult decisions loomed, I suddenly began to wonder if maybe Dad could, you know, make mistakes! — and had to learn what it meant to submit because God said so. Now, as a wife, each time I come back to this issue of facing fear, trusting God, and submitting, I realize afresh that really, this is simply another call to total surrender — just another means used by God to bring me to a yielded place of radical devotion to Him.

Are you willing to take a leap of faith, and trust in God as He uses authorities in your life? Are you ready to let go of yourself and walk according to His plans? Are you willing to ultimately submit to Him as He molds and makes you into the image of His Son?

Week 1: Sarah: A Holy Woman

Week 2: Sarah: A Woman Who Chose Trust

Week 3: Sarah: A Woman of Character

Your adornment must not be merely external — braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.
–1 Peter 3:3-5

So what can we learn from Sarah, as we consider her story through the lens of 1 Peter?

First, Sarah had a submissive spirit. If we are going to honor God as we relate to authorities in our lives, we must first have a deep-down, unshakable conviction that this is the place to which we’ve been called. (Read Genesis 2:18, Psalm 144:12, and 1 Corinthians 11:3 to begin further study.)

Peter, when referring to Sarah and other holy women, says they were adorned with a quiet spirit. That may not seem to have much to do with trust and submission, but Peter isn’t saying these women didn’t talk much. Rather, the word “quiet” that’s used there means they did not tend towards contention and strife, but to peace and support. (Hooray! We can all be “quiet” and still be chatty!) Long before Abraham asked her to do these hard things, Sarah had begun adorning her heart with an attitude of peace and support. (How convicting! Can we stop now??!) So we see how being “quiet” ties in with submission, but here’s the truth: you can only have the adornment of a quiet spirit when your trust is in God.

Second, Sarah submitted to Abraham because she trusted in and obeyed God, NOT because she trusted in Abraham! These holy women first “hoped in God,” and then were submissive to their own husbands. What does it mean to trust? Well, I like this definition: “surrender; a firm belief in the honesty and reliability of another.” In Genesis 12 and 20, she was able to go along with and support Abraham because she truly trusted God with her life.

Submission is not a crazy idea someone had back in the Stone Age (as if there was such a thing…) God Himself has ordained this authority thing, and has chosen to execute His plan for our lives through it. Yes, God’s plan for your life will come to pass as you embrace His call to follow and place yourself under the authorities in your life. Honestly, submission is really about obedience to God. It might seem crazy at times. (Or insane; ask Sarah!) But the question God is asking us is, Will you obey me in this? Why would God promise to lead and guide us and then tell us to submit unless He planned on guiding us through the structure of authority? God will not contradict himself; there is no way true joy for you lies in disobedience, and there’s no way His plan includes rebellion.

Of course, submitting doesn’t mean we don’t pray for and appeal to our authorities. Definitely! If you’re married, your husband needs your prayers! He probably needs your appeals, too! Be the prophet in your home! If you’re a daughter, your father needs you to be praying on his behalf for wisdom! He needs to know your heart! But if/when prayers seem to fail, appeals are shut down, and your heart is not heard — God is still God, and He has plans to prosper you. (And He’s proud of you for obeying Him as you submit!)*

God doesn’t want to just lead us down our life’s path; He wants to build character. The issue for Sarah, for example, was not whether or not Abraham made a wise decision, but what her response would be. She wouldn’t answer on judgment day for his decision, but she would answer for her response. This was a test of what she was made of! And there’s so much more to God’s will than what we do; there’s who we are, and submission, while it is a means of guidance and protection (what we do) is even more an instrument used in the building of character, proven through our responses (who we are.)

Week 1: Sarah: A Holy Woman

Week2: Sarah: A Woman Who Chose Trust

*Have an issue of an authority demanding things contrary to God’s standard of morality? Those are important questions. Please feel free to send them our way.

Your adornment must not be merely external — braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.
–1 Peter 3:3-5

“Submission and trust are not just thrown in as two arbitrary qualities of the Bible’s good girls. The two go hand in hand. A true heart attitude of peaceful submission — free from worry, anxiety, or bitterness — is only possible when we find a deep place of trust in God. Sarah learned trust through difficult situations as she trusted God, obeyed in spite of her husband’s fallibility, and reaped reward.” (from last week’s post.)

Let’s take a look at the opportunities for trust in Sarah’s life. Grab your Bible and turn to Genesis 12:1-5, and 12:10-20.

First, we see Abram (not yet Abraham) receiving a word from the Lord to pack up and go. Go where? Well, to the land the Lord would show him. Huh. I don’t know about you, but I get nervous when we get in the car for a trip, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Ryan doesn’t actually know where we’re supposed to be heading. (Fortunately, the handy-dandy iPhone calms most of my fears!) Nonetheless, Abram packs up house, servants, animals, and his wife Sarai (not yet Sarah), and they all head out. Unnerving, I’d say.

And then, through a series of unfortunate events, we end up in Egypt, where the story gets a little kooky. “Say you’re my sister, so the Egyptians don’t kill me,” Abram asks.* And Sarai must have thought, “Huh. Nice for you, but what about me? If they think I’m up for grabs, who’s to say they won’t help themselves?” But apparently, she kept her mouth shut and, when asked, said she was simply Abram’s sister. Surprise, surprise — Pharaoh ends up taking her into his house, and just in the nick of time, the Lord shows up and strikes Pharaoh’s house with a plague. Things get sorted out, and Abram’s on his merry way, with Sarai, who just had the roller coaster ride of her life — or so she thinks.

Except now we turn to Genesis 20:1-18, and Abraham decides to pull the same stunt!! You know Sarah was thinking, “You have GOT TO BE KIDDING!!” But no, he’s not. Amazingly enough, Sarah again displays a profound trust in God, and submits to what Abraham asks of her. And once again, the king of the country they’re in takes Sarah into his house. (This is my favorite part:) God, once again, shows up to save the day as Sarah’s defender and tells King Abimelech that he’s a dead man, because he took a married woman. Again, things get sorted out, and they’re on their way. Phew. What a day!

Reading in Genesis, we might be tempted to wonder why on earth Sarah played along with these crazy schemes. We might picture her to be an oppressed doormat of a woman. We might just chalk it up to a strange and foreign culture. Fast-forward to 1 Peter, however, and we discover that none of those scenarios rightly capture Sarah’s heart. No, the simple reason for her actions was this: she hoped in God — completely — and was therefore able to submit to her husband.

More on this next week!

*Note: A bit of reading of OT culture, along with Abraham’s defense in 20:12, leads us to understand that Sarah actually was Abraham’s sister, and in those days, the familial tie was much stronger and more respected than a marital tie. A greedy king may have been tempted to kill the husband of a wealthy woman, but wouldn’t bother killing a brother, since her wealth would simply go back to her father’s house. I only reference this to point out that Abraham did NOT ask Sarah to lie. We are not required by God to submit to immoral laws (”It is better to obey God than man.”)

Your adornment must not be merely external — braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear. (1 Peter 3:3-5)

I’m going to take the next few weeks to look at Sarah, a woman the Bible calls “holy.” There is so much to be gleaned from the story of her life! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Peter refers to Sarah (and others like her) as holy. What qualified them to be defined in such a way? Surprisingly, nothing very “supernatural”. No bizarre signs and wonders, no glowing halos hovering above their heads. Wanna know why they’re holy? Because they trusted God and submitted to their husbands! Really? That’s it?? Obviously there’s more to these two things than meets the eye. Let’s keep digging!

Submission and trust are not just thrown in as two arbitrary qualities of the Bible’s good girls. The two go hand in hand. A true heart attitude of peaceful submission — free from worry, anxiety, or bitterness — is only possible when we find a deep place of trust in God. Sarah learned trust through difficult situations as she trusted God, obeyed in spite of her husband’s fallibility, and reaped reward.

Now, although we’re looking at a specific example of a wife and how she drew near to God as she rightly related to her husband, this is applicable to all women. In fact, I first did this study when I was 22, unmarried, and seeking to honor and submit to my father, even when it wasn’t easy. Submission is not simply for wives, or for a few seasons of life. God desires women to be under a covering of some sort in every season of their lives, and through this structure of leadership and authority, she finds protection, guidance, care — and an opportunity to trust God implicitly! (If you have thoughts or questions on any of that, please, let me know!)

Get a head start: Read Genesis 12:1-20, and 20:1-18.

Mom’s been writing her thoughts on this over in the Titus 2 corner. And what great, impacting thoughts. And how totally contrary to what we learn from the culture around us. Love children? Value them? Speak well of them? Nurture them? Sacrifice for them? Do anything other than endure them?

No, loving children is not the popular message. All the way from Roe vs. Wade, to the casual complaints heard towards the end of August when moms are wishing those yellow buses would come give them their deserved break from the little tyrants, there’s a message we hear loud and clear: It’s all about you, and certainly not about them.

That’s not the Bible’s message. At all.

For some, loving children seems to be one of those natural talents. Babies settle in their arms, kids flock to them, they are the most sought-after babysitters. For others of us (like me!), sitting in a nursery of toddlers for over an hour can be a totally overwhelming proposition. I’m not good with kids! Trust me, I’ve had the thought, too.

But regardless of your natural abilities to charm people of 3-ft stature, we must all learn to love children.

Given how much we have going against us culturally, certainly the best time to start learning that is now, whether you’re a teenager, single adult, or have four children already! And certainly the best way to start learning that is to simply start loving the children you encounter.

No one gets off the hook with a cold, aloof, (half-scared, come on, admit it), “Uh, kids just aren’t my thing.” And as the Word of God seeps into our hearts, transforming the way we think about people in general, we’ll be amazed by how suddenly, these running, falling, tripping, laughing, runny-nosed kids look like seeds of promise. Like destiny waiting for investment. Like an entire future of potential that you could possibly help to bring about.

How? By speaking to them as though they’re people. By telling their mother how blessed she is. By freely giving a gentle touch as they pass by. By counting them worthy of your sacrifice of time (because they are.) By telling them, and reminding yourself, that God made them.

I know, personally, that as I let truth wash over me as a young single woman, I was amazed by how shallow my love for children had been — and how life-changingly deep God wanted it to become. I never became a natural at doing nursery, but I knew it was a privilege. Babysitting, to this day, makes me a tad nervous, but there are few other opportunities that excite me to the possibility of being used by the Holy Spirit. Some days, after meditating on the blessing of children, I find my heart ready to burst into tears at the playground as I watch so many babies and toddlers and young children running and playing, and — and do they know the Lord? Because they need to!

I guess what I most want to communicate is that sometimes we need to be willing to learn to love children. (And if an older woman is supposed to teach us, then obviously we’re supposed to be learning.) You know how God loves the whole world, but He also loves you? Well, I think that’s what God wants us to learn about loving children. It’s wonderful to be moved by the idea of helping children the world over, but He also wants me to love the toddler at church whose behavior is a little…well. He wants me to “go out of my way to cherish every person I encounter, and to be the strongest voice of enthusiasm to every newly-pregnant mom I meet — regardless of how many they already have, how young their previous is, and how much their husband brings home.” (I wrote a bit about this theme last year: being pro-life starts with valuing life.)

Certainly we’ve all heard stories about how a life was forever impacted by one woman’s kindness. I want to be used by God as that woman. I want to stand out in a baby-killing, family-hating, child-despising world as a minister of love and life. And I don’t want to just be a bit better; I want to have the heart of God.

I’ve collected here a few samples.

For the detailed, check out Crystal’s morning routine, tips on developing a schedule, and her sample schedule.

Or maybe you prefer something a bit more visual and creative.

Maybe you’d be most inspired opening up a beautiful planner you yourself have created.

Here’s another example of a home management notebook. (And check out the related links!)

Getting Things Done is a book with great ideas on organizing your thoughts and life. (Though written for the office exec, the principles are easy to apply.)

Now that you know which direction to go, check out all of these free downloads!!

Lastly, you may enjoy reading 36 ways to be more productive.

What about you? If you have a link, share it in the comments!

Some people are more attracted to plans, routines, and budgets (for time or money). Whether your personality naturally tends towards the orderly, or if you’re one of those whose skin crawls when you hear the word “plan”, let me suggest some reasons for why I believe every single woman needs to implement some self-discipline in her day.

First of all, God saw fit to stick us in this strange thing called Time. I think part of His wisdom in doing that is this: time forces us to make choices all day long, and with those choices, we have the opportunity to prioritize. Yes, what you do with you time is your decision, and it is a telling way to find what your true priorities are. At a conference I attended several years ago, the speaker challenged us to track our days for one whole week — and then make a pie chart of our findings. While I may have had illusions of how spiritual and selfless my life was, a pie chart with large wedges of media intake and “huh, what did I do with that hour?” indicated otherwise! Time, while it may not always feel like our friend, is a great way to measure what’s important to us, and what is ruling our lives.

Which leads me to this: by default, we will always cave to the tyranny of the urgent. Having a routine/schedule means that first things remain first, and don’t get squeezed out by what can (at that moment) seem soooo important.

A schedule also means that there are less hours just sort of… disappearing into thin air. If you struggle (as most of us do) with a touch of laziness now and then, a schedule will do wonders for you.

We all want to live lives of purpose. We want to be redeeming the time. And I know that personally, when I was single, I wanted desperately to know that I wasn’t wasting energetic, passion-filled years. Scheduling gives you the chance to ask God to give meaning to your days.

Hear are some tips I found helpful as I regularly reevaluated my life:

1. Create a list of priorities. Put the big rocks in first, and you’ll be amazed to find that there still is room for plenty of little pebbles.

These may include things like:

– quiet time/Bible study
– work/school
– church
– family (if you’re a young woman living at home, this is worth putting high on your list!)
– relationships (and prioritize those, too; not all relationships are created equal)
– hospitality (married woman are not the only ones called to open their homes!)
– exercise
– life maintenance: cleaning, laundry, breathing room!

2. Budget REAL time, not wishful thinking. Don’t cram 30 hours of activity into one 24 hour day, and just hope those extra hours magically appear. Sit down with an actual piece of paper, divided up into hours and days, and make a schedule. And don’t forget things like driving time (I’m famous for thinking I can leave my house at 10:30 for a 10:30 appointment. Details!)

3. Budget REAL time with the REAL you in mind. Know yourself. Don’t try to keep up with someone else’s schedule. Ask God what He wants from you.

I would, for example, fill a day’s schedule up till 11pm, and start the next day at 5:30am. By the time I actually got to bed, that meant about 5.5 hours of sleep every night. Amazingly, I could make this work for weeks on end, but inevitably, my body would crash at the first “down” opportunity, and I’d get sick. Not ideal.

So ask yourself: do you need more than 5.5 hours of sleep? Be ready to be stretched, but don’t let idealism thwart your attempts at scheduling your time.

Know your emotional limits. Just because you have a free hour on paper doesn’t mean your soul can handle one more activity, no matter how noble the cause.

4. Use a day-timer or calendar of some sort. In other words, write it down. A single person is more apt to have random appointments… and is apt to double-book. You don’t want to do that! It’s irresponsible, inconsiderate, and contributes to a sense of spinning out of control. Trust me, I KNOW!

Singleness is a unique calling. For most of us, it’s just a season — and it’s a season that so many people in our culture squander. Don’t be one of those! Take those hours and days to the Lord and be ready to serve Him and His priorities. You’ll be amazed at how much purpose He can give to a life lived intentionally for Him.

(Have a question you’d like to see discussed? Shoot it our way via the contact form, and we’ll do our best to answer!)

The Woman’s Rights Movement has been pushing its way through our world for over a century. It began with the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848 which ultimately put in motion a forum for rebellion and insistence against what God called good. Included were statements such as, “In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master - the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty and to administer chastisement.” Eph 5:22-24 would say exactly the opposite of this Sentiment. Titus 2 also specifically states the need for obedience from a wife to her husband.

(As a side note: It is my suspicion that before this Declaration of Sentiment was produced, that the latter part of this section of Ephesians was perhaps not being heeded or deemed as necessary. However, I don’t consider this a good excuse to go against the principles which God was laying out for a marriage. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word…”)

The Lord set up an order for households. A body has one head. Just as the Church has a head – God – so should the home have one head – the husband. It just works. When a man loves and respects his wife, and a wife is obedient and honoring of her husband, there is peace and harmony. One isn’t as easy to do without the other, although still necessary to embrace.

Maybe this is bothering you a bit. Perhaps it rubs you the wrong way. Even when we often – as a Christian culture – attempt to embrace the order of a home, we have allowed feminism to sneak in and there isn’t room for both in our lives.

I am familiar with the irritation that grows as someone begins to talk about this. I always knew it as Truth and was able to preach it with the best of them, but it felt like sand paper against skin when someone would talk about God’s heart for a woman’s role. Insecurity and the “vulnerability=heartache” equation led to my embracing of feminism, which led to rebellion and a hard heart. I didn’t want anything that resembled what I had grown up with because I interpreted it as the “default” in the Christian culture. I assumed that people chose to get married and have lots of children because they assumed it was just what they were supposed to do, rather than feeling specifically called by the Lord to choose this lifestyle. I despised conformity for the sake of conforming. I wanted to know that I would be fulfilled in my life and that I would do something specifically designed for me.

As I headed off on my own after high school I discovered that I wasn’t feeling fulfilled in my choices and I couldn’t put my finger on why not. (Brilliant girl, I know!) When the Lord brought me home during the hardest season of my life, I found comfort and solace in the one place I had wanted to leave as soon as I could. I began to understand that home was what I was supposed to love. More than that, I was falling in love with the protection of being under my father’s covering and counsel. That surprised me.

I began to peel away the layers of feminism that I had put into place in my life. Whatever the reason for it being there, I had put up walls against embracing true Biblical womanhood and taking them down cost me and sometimes even hurt.

There was a time during the process of being delivered from the lies of feminism that I felt empty and hollow - like I had nothing to fill the void that was now in my heart. Where were the dreams? the vision for life? the ambitious goals? And what was I supposed to do now? I panicked and worried that I wouldn’t be ME any more. How little did I trust the Lord! HE remained faithful to me even in my fears and distrust and proved to me that HE has greater things than I could have ever imagined.

And now here I am, five years after I graduated from high school as an “18-year-old determined to be out on her own and far away from home doing something huge and great girl” living at home once again; I own a hair salon a short fifteen minute drive away; and I find joy in serving the local church and the community around me. The joy that is found by doing whatever the Lord may call you to — however big or little — is worth every sacrifice. If we aren’t sacrificing something, than what makes us any different than the world around us anyway?

We are all uniquely created with our own set of talents, interests, and resources. Consequently the particulars of our lives will look different, but fortunately the basic guidelines for living given in the scriptures apply in all times - yesterday, today, and tomorrow - to all women in all places.

That’s our amazing God for you. How many other owner’s manuals do you know of that are timeless? Every new appliance we purchase comes with a different set of instructions. Not so with His creation. What was good for Eve is good for us. The issues important to Sarah and Mary are still critical to us. The outworking may look different but the concepts are still intact.

Titus 2:3-5 “…the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the work of God may not be blasphemed.”

These words were written by Paul to Titus as counsel for establishing sound order within a local church. So how does this affect you and me? I guess it means this: our mission is to learn the concepts listed by Paul and apply them in this day and age.

Does that mean every woman? What about single ladies? Does it include young women? How young? What if I’m newly saved? Raised in a Christian home? Working? Staying at home?

Whatever your lot in life, whatever your station, God has wisdom for you today! If you are young, remember this: you, too, will one day be counted among the older women. Wisdom says that it is best to prepare today for tomorrow. And if you are already “older”, it is never too late to start learning and functioning.

God laid out some clear, concise guidelines in this scripture to aid Titus in establishing orderly and functional churches. We need this instruction today as much as ever because we need proper vision, true vision.

Imagine a group of people standing on the edge of a large open field facing a vast, thickly treed forest on the other side. They all know that somewhere in that forest is a hidden treasure chest. What they don’t know is that only one of them has been given a map revealing the whereabouts of that treasure. What is the outcome? Who moves most efficiently, taking the most direct route? Which one has more confidence, less stress? Who leaves the others behind second guessing their every step, looking over their shoulder to see where everyone else is going, wondering and worrying all along the way? Obviously the one with the inside scoop, lucky fellow, gets the treasure with comparative ease.

Look around you. What do you see in any given direction? Women in this culture, in any culture really, are searching, stumbling around like the guys without the map, trying to find meaning, some kind of instruction that will lend purpose and bring fulfillment to their lives. If we smarten up and lend God our attention, looking to Him for wisdom, we can be like the lucky fellow. We can gain vision, our very own map to guide us to hidden treasure.

There are essentially two settings with correlating visions for Biblical womanhood and they encompass all women:

#1 – I will be an older woman one day so I will prepare now. I will not just wake up one day as an older woman miraculously prepared for this ministry; I must prepare now. The coming years are valuable years of training and growing in character and strength. I submit myself to His teaching and guidance.

#2 – I am an older woman. I will function in that role as God dictates, starting with what little I may have, trusting that God will give increase (remember that young boy with his little lunch that our Lord multiplied); He will restore the years that the locusts have eaten. I will be of use in His kingdom.

To discover the curriculum neatly tucked within the Titus 2 passage above we simply begin by studying the pre-requisites for ministry listed by Paul, followed by the topics older women must themselves teach. Some of the topics included are reverence, controlled speech, self-control, and good things, such as loving husbands, chastity, and homemaking. In the coming months we will be exploring these issues and more.

This curriculum is not optional; these are the required courses, not “electives”. If we hope to be effective in our ministry we must develop these things. And we must become effective. If we fail to fulfill this calling as women it is a serious failure; His word will be blasphemed. We do not need to know a single other thing. God has, in those simple words “…that the word of God may not be blasphemed…”, placed a seal of “top priority” on this particular calling. Therefore we must function. And we must function in these specifics. Period.

Failure to function as Godly older women is not merely a miscarriage of obedience; this failure interrupts God’s plan for generational building. Without functional older women teaching younger women those younger women will end up as orphans in the church struggling to accomplish what was intended to be done by two or three generations.

Back to a common response.

“That’s for older married women,” I hear young women and unmarried women say. “They (older married women) should be responsible and get with the program, but why should young or unmarried women concern themselves with the curriculum laid out in these verses? Paul wasn’t talking to us.”

As to the issue of being young and therefore not responsible for this kind of ministry, consider two things. First of all, no matter who you are, there is someone younger looking up to you. Remember being in fifth grade? Those seventh graders had mighty big impact on how you dressed, what you thought, how you acted. Being a year or two older automatically puts you in a position of influence. The kind of influence you make on those younger than you really matters to God (and to the mothers of those other kids - trust me, I know.)

Secondly, the kind of fruit Paul refers to here does not develop overnight. If you want to be effective in the years ahead, you need good fruit; you must plan carefully now. Guidance counselors are not only needed for high school students charting a pathway to future earthly success. God established that concept right here in Titus 2:3-5 by laying down requirements for ministry so that women might function successfully in the kingdom of God through the local church setting. We are not without knowledge of what to study for preparation.

How do single women fit in? Titus 2 seems to be addressing only wives and mothers.

Most of the topics included in this passage are “across the board” qualities and accomplishments appropriate for all women regardless of age, marital status, or station in life. Single women are needed to be living examples of reverence and obedience, to teach younger women, to nurture new believers in the local church, and to provide care in a community. There is much for a single woman to do. Are single women exempt from chastity or reverence? Of course not. Beyond that, single women can and should understand and embrace a working knowledge of what it means to love a husband and children. Should they not be able to encourage a sister who is struggling as a mother? Can they not counsel a woman who has lost hope in her marriage? They can and should.

Our culture encourages training in most every occupation, but learning to nurture and serve, to function as women with contentment and kindness, and to be successful wives and mothers must often be learned on the job. Let’s change that. We can begin to turn that around by starting right now to gain vision according to His word. He wants to establish a Biblical worldview in your heart and mind, including specifics for walking out womanhood with fulfillment and grace.

Next week: a testimony regarding the importance of establishing a Biblical vision.