Discipleship

“I Wish More Older Women Would Teach Younger Women How to ___”

Older Women Teaching Younger Women

Young ladies: I need your help.

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. (Titus 2:3-5)

I subscribe to a lot of blogs. There’s no way I can read every post that comes across my feed, so the post title has to really catch my attention in order for me to stop speed-scanning. One such title: 5 Things I Wish More Older Women Would Teach Younger Women (Like Me) by Hannah Giselbach. Her five things?

  1. How to have a happy marriage
  2. How to be a homemaker
  3. How to evangelize
  4. How to be a godly mother
  5. How to be a teacher

Hannah’s post got me thinking. What five things would Shelly list? What about the younger ladies at Laurel Canyon? And elsewhere?

Here’s where your feedback would be invaluable. I’m planning on preaching a sermon on September 15 titled, “Things I Wish More Older Women Would Teach Younger Women” and I’d love to be able to share a snapshot of real wishes from younger women.

Ladies, using either the comments section below or Facebook, I’d love to hear your thoughts. They can certainly reiterate some of Hannah’s wishes, or be completely original. I think your honest answers could provide a fantastic learning opportunity for women and men, young and old alike. So here goes.

“I wish more older women would teach younger women”:

  1. _
  2. _
  3. _
  4. _
  5. _

Thanks for your help!

4 Comments

  1. 1. How to respect themselves.
    2. How to show others Christ’s love.
    3. How to dress like a lady.
    4. How to be a Godly wife.
    5. How to be a Godly mother.

  2. This is a topic I hear a lot about, especially from younger women – usually complaining about the older women. As a “younger” woman (33) I can tell you from experience that the problem is not the older women, although they often get the blame. The issue is that the older women & younger women are not building relationships together. I don’t know when the younger women expect the older women to do the teaching — somewhere after the final prayer & before you shake the preachers hand? The kind of teaching young women want comes from building relationships. The younger women need to build relationships with the older women. We need to invite the older women into our homes or out for coffee. It’s there while you’re enjoying a cup of coffee at your kitchen table that the older woman will share the tip her Mom taught her to keep the pans sparkling clean. Or while she sits in the living room with you helping you fold the clean laundry she will share her tips of things to try when you’re at your wits end with the toddler who won’t sit quietly through worship. Will another study or sermon or check list of things to do or things for the older women to tell the younger women change things? No. We could go to the internet and find hundreds of books and blog posts on that very subject. Instead of complaining about what I wish someone had told me, go out and find a younger woman and share those things with her. Every woman who is old enough to say, “I wish the older women would…” is old enough to find a younger woman to share her wisdom with. I’ve been that young woman complaining about the older women. But I’ve learned that if you want something to change, you have to take steps towards making that change happen. For me, the change was actively seeking out the company of older women. Once I befriended these women, they started pouring out their knowledge. They don’t need to be told what to do, they just need people who are willing to listen. And let’s be real here — no one is just going to walk up to someone in the 10 minutes between Bible Class and worship and say, “Would you like to know how to love your husband when he’s not easy to love?” That’s not a 10 minute conversation and quite honestly, most young women I know would get offended by the question. Saying, “can you believe she asked me that?”” or ” No, I love my husband all the time.”

  3. How to have a personal relationship with God as an individual
    How to share your relationship with others
    How to show hospitality
    How to practice submission
    How to lead in the role given

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