Internet Titus 2

I'll direct you over to this blog, but don't blame me when you look at your computer clock and realize an hour has passed (and there goes your nap again...).

There is a conference that I attend every year called Women Discipling Women. Two years ago, I was struck by what a speaker said to us:

"Where are the older women? Scripture mandates that the older women teach the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be keepers at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, that the word of God may not be maligned. While the older women are putting off this command, the younger women are turning to Oprah. The younger women need to learn from someone, and they will seek guidance wherever it can be found."

She went on to say that we are all younger women and all older women. Ideally, we should be in a mentoring relationship with a mentor and a mentoree. No woman is ever smart enough, godly enough, or self-controlled enough. God will work through imperfect people. She stressed that there is no excuse to disobey the Titus 2 command.

Yikes.

There are godly women that I am able to learn from in my church, my family, and my periphery. I am thankful for the wisdom that I get from these ladies. There are also women I get to meet with on a more intentional and regular basis. But I must say that I get much spiritual encouragement from this blog. Her aim is to strip away pretentiousness from her life and simply live for Jesus. What she teaches through journaling the lessons she is personally learning is profound and encouraging. I feel like my soul gets taught and fed through her simply exegesis and application of Scripture.

Her post yesterday involved a discourse of training the heart of a child. I have a two-year-old girl like the one she writes about. My sweet little girl also is beginning to show every sign of the sinful heart she was born with. She hugs and kisses me one moment; the next, she runs away while yelling, "Nooo!". Discipline sessions are getting more frequent and more firm. I was beginning to feel discouraged until I received this unintended counsel. I got to stop and think about how my aim is to train the heart of this child, not just the outward behavior. That, I can shape. The heart takes more work- more sweat, more tears, more prayers. I truly desire to raise a heart that is soft for Christ. I don't want to waste my work on raising a small Pharisee. I am encouraged to be diligent, to pursue this goal when I feel like I am busy or drained or frustrated.

God knows that women, especially, need solid relationships. He has given us a reason to pursue these relationships- to sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron.