About two years ago, my daughter (age 11 at the time) & I decided we wanted to have a group of her friends over for the purpose of learning how to cook, making fun crafts and learning lessons from the Bible (a little discipleship group). We called it "Treasure Girls" highlighting that we wanted to treasure Christ above all things--avoiding being "Pleasure Girls--living for ourselves which is so easy to do.
It's been a great experience. We've included the moms each time and it forces us to focus on spending time together once a month, building relationship & hopefully, our relationship with Christ.
Lately, I've encouraged the girls to begin daily devotions which was a huge struggle for me when I was their age. My daughter is now 13 & feels the devotion book we picked is really helpful for her. It's called "Becoming God's True Woman While I Still Have a Curfew" by Mary Kassian & Susan Hunt.
Tomorrow night when we get together, we're going to talk about this main point:
How can we think biblically today (as 13 year old girls & forty-something moms) when we are constantly being told we need to be independent, follow our hearts & do whatever makes us happy?
One of the answers to this question is discipleship--older women helping younger women. In Titus 2:3-5, it states: "Older women. . .are to teach what is good, and so train the young women that the word of God may not be reviled." This is God's good plan. (Actually, the word reviled is such a strong word--in Greek, it comes from the word blasphemed and carries with it the thought of making fun of, or irreverence for God's Word.) So, teaching younger women is a big responsibility & one that requires lots of prayer.
Unfortunately, when I was 13, having grown up in the church & being a preacher's kid, I thought I knew everything. My proud attitude kept me from being taught effectively by older godly women. I remember one woman who faithfully taught us girls each week in Awana. Although she was the mom of 4 small children at the time, and I am sure she didn't have much energy left for rambunctious, boy-crazy girls, she came every week and greeted us with a huge, warm smile, her love for us shining in her eyes. At the time, I knew she loved me so I knew I wanted to listen to her when she taught us from the Word. When we memorized Titus 3:5,6, she taught it to us as a song. I still remember it--the essence of the Gospel in a song I tucked away in my heart.
These kind of relationships are God's will for us. See Psalm 78:4-7: We will tell to the coming generations the glorious deeds of the Lord. . . which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God."
What are older women supposed to tell us?
The praiseworthy deeds of our God!
In Susan Hunt's section of "Becoming God's True Woman. . .", she reminds us that older women are to tell younger women 1) "God created them in His image--created male & female--distinct differences, 2) to live for God's glory" (Treasure Girls treasuring Christ; not Pleasure Girls, treasuring self), 3) "to let older women share their lives with you; whether this is your mom, your sister, your grandmother or an older friend/lady at church."
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