In the last three years or so, I have transitioned to that new season of life called “older” womanhood.
It has not been an easy nor quick transition. Rather, the realities of the emptying nest, the study of God’s Word, and the application of wise instruction have helped me through the struggle. Transitioning to older woman has enlarged my view of God’s good plan for the daughters of the King of kings.
In Creation, God made a perfect world in which He planted the most beautiful and good garden for Adam to live in. Only when no suitable help could be found for Adam was it said to be “not good.” So, God crowned His creation by making woman from Adam’s rib. Eve was the perfectly suitable help for Adam. Then God said it was good! When ruined by sin in the Fall, both Adam and Eve learned the promise of gospel redemption through the seed of the woman. In the fullness of time, our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a woman to work redemption for His people. As the gospel of Jesus Christ has spread throughout the world, women have been impacted for good in ways we sometimes fail to understand.
Ever since Satan deceived Eve, women have suffered greatly under various political and religious systems. Through the centuries of time, womanhood has been degraded throughout the world. Today’s culture has been so plundered by feminism that it creeps in everywhere unawares! The waves of feminism in the twentieth century have brought a rejection of biblical Christianity. It is only in the gospel of Jesus Christ that womanhood finds and regains the beauty of freedom and respect that God originally planned for women in Creation.
If our culture needs anything today, it needs godly women of all ages to live biblically for God’s glory in the places God has them.
How can we so live? The Scriptures are clear! Evidently, the believers of Crete needed some instruction on how to organize their church. The apostle Paul wrote to Titus, the minister of the Cretean church, the beautiful words of Titus 2:1-5. Titus was to teach sound doctrine, so that different ages of people might learn to live godly. Verses 3-5 show God’s special care for the godly women of Crete and the wider Christian church. The words are beautifully caring as they give God’s daughters guidance for daily personal living, family life, work, relationships, and church involvement. God’s purpose comes at the end of verse 5—that the Word of God be not blasphemed! How older women and young women live biblically or not is a matter of honoring God’s Word! It matters how women live!
John Angell James (1785-1859) traces the treatment of women through the ages in chapter one of Female Piety. James says, “God in all his ordinances, Christ in his glorious undertaking, and the Holy Spirit in his gracious work, gave [woman] her proper place in the world, by giving her a proper place in the church.”
So, in the struggle of watching the emptying nest and the transition to older womanhood, I asked the Lord, “What do you want me to do now?” The Lord has graciously opened Titus 2:1-5 to my mind and heart. Let the precious, redeemed daughters of the King of kings learn sound doctrine; live holy and vibrant lives; encourage and invest in young women; and honor the Scriptures for the glory of God, for the good of the church, and for a testimony to the world!