Few holidays stir up the emotions among women like Mother’s Day can. For some, this second Sunday in May is a surge of love and happiness. For others, likely 1 out of 2 of us at some point in our lives, it’s not an easy day. In fact, it’s a reminder of what we don’t have or what we’ve lost.
Mother’s Day can be lonely and painful. Maybe you recently buried your mother. Maybe you are doing the hard, unseen work of caring for your aging mother. Maybe you went through many of these days without children, although you were waiting and hoping. Maybe you never had a relationship with your mother or are now estranged. Maybe you lost a child. Maybe you’re an empty-nester and miss being a mom.
We need one another. As a woman, you have a role in someone’s life. We can recognize and find some joy in celebrating mothers and mother-figures.
Mother’s Day was on my mind as I joined a group of women recently to pray. Our small gathering focused on a beautiful, young woman in her eighth month of pregnancy. She is one of my daughter’s BFFs since the two of them were preschoolers. Her mom, a friend of mine who gets me and loves me, is for me as “iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17).
I found a quiet spot to watch and listen, delighted to be holding my sleeping granddaughter, and I marveled at the LORD’S kindness to let me experience this just before Mother’s Day. Among this group of women, an array of diverse personalities and feelings. Sisters. Friends. Single. Married. Daughters. Mothers. Grandmothers. Aunts. Joy. Gladness. Sorrow. Longing. Thanksgiving. Hope.
These women were a picture of togetherness.
Growth and deep friendship will inevitably bring confrontation and conflict. Vulnerability and heart connections. Investment beyond light-hearted conversation. Intentional pursuit. Safe to say, the relationships I saw in this prayer gathering involved a willingness for two women to “put themselves out there.”
When women teach women what it means to be a woman, we care for one another, we love one another, and we encourage one another as life-givers. We give to the next generation of women.
Titus 2:3-5 is a precious mandate for women to encourage and equip other women. It is the calling for older women, seasoned in age, maturity, and spiritual walk, to share wisdom, experience, understanding, and love for the LORD with a younger woman.
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, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
The Titus 2 woman is described as having godly conduct, dress, and conversation. She’s not critical of others, or a gossip, or a false accuser. She doesn’t over-indulge, gives good instruction and models godly behavior.
There are lessons for the older woman to teach younger women: to love their husbands; to love their children; to be discreet, sensible, wise, and self-controlled; to be virtuous, modest, and sexually pure; to follow good housekeeping practices; to be kind and do good to others.
The goal of this discipleship model is a powerful call for older sisters, as Christ-followers, to understand how important it is to bring glory to God through their example “…so the Word of God may not be reviled” (Titus 2:5).
The women gathered around our young friend recently for prayer were a picture of simply being available and willing to walk beside another woman and use the gifts and talents God has given them. Every woman, ready to use her gifts, walking in obedience to the LORD.
By passing on our faith to others, the lives of our sisters are drawn to walk with God, and our own intimacy with the LORD is deepened.
We need one another. We need other women to teach us how to be women, in the same way our brothers need men to teach them to be men. God’s faithful work of spiritually mothering women in the church. Women growing together in Christ as they share life’s joys and sorrows.
It’s not only a privilege but a blessing when women nurture life-on-life relationships with other women. We experience growth in faith and equipping for the work of ministry at home, across the street, and around the world. Women growing together.
At Fellowship, we call the women’s ministry Woven. The image portrays the intricate beauty of God’s tapestry of our lives woven together in Christ.
How might God use you to reach women in this community? Consider how you will join the upcoming Woven Summer Events and connect with other women. We would be grateful to speak with you about opportunities for growth, connection, and service through the Woven ministry. Please contact Carrie Henry Karie Lee, or Emilee Henry