“The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian makes me a different kind of woman” (Elisabeth Elliot).
In 1956, this young wife of Jim Elliott was forced to reconfigure life after her husband of 3 years was slain while sharing the gospel in Ecuador. As a grieving wife, she could have done a wide variety of things, including leaving the faith. Nevertheless, she decided to root her faith and later minister to the same people who murdered Jim. I don’t know about you, but every time I hear that story, it makes me think, “Wow. What a woman.” right alongside, “Where are today’s Elisabeths?”
Today there seem to be very few women as passionate about the Lord as Elisabeth and Jim were, and I can’t help but wonder why that is. Unfortunately, when I look in the stained-glass windows of many churches, I see a lack of one thing – women’s mentorship.
Moms and young wives are trying to raise families based on the truth of the Bible. Where are they going to get it? Women’s ministry isn’t a focus in many churches. And there has got to be more guidance than just that hour or two on a Sunday morning. Where are the Christian women to do life with? What about the sisters in the faith with whom we can have Christ-centered coffee and tea? Where are the women proud to be Christian women?
Dying and untrained.
I think that women have an ordained place to serve the Lord, their husbands, and their families with all of their being. However, few are still being taught how to do so. When my great grandmother was alive, I remember her being a picture of whom I wanted to be as a woman. She took care of her family, her husband, and loved the Lord mightily. Unfortunately, long gone are the days of women like her, and few are stepping up to fill those shoes. My theory behind the decline of these extraordinary and Godly types of women is the lack of Christian women mentoring and pouring into those younger.
In 2021, so much of our time is spent on the go that we overlook those in need. Those in need are none other than the up-and-coming women that need that bond and connection with each other. In Titus 2, the message is quite clear – older women should teach the younger. They should help them grow to be good wives, moms, and Christians.
Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God (Titus 2:3-5).
Where are these teachers?
Growing up in church, I knew that women were important. However, there was only one verse that I distinctly remember being taught above the rest when it came to womanhood, and it was Proverbs 31:25. It reads:
She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.
Fun. Frivolous. Strong. Dignified. These words are what I associated with this mysterious woman and happy wife. In my head, I imagined her on some beach somewhere, letting her hair blow in the salty wind and laughing as the sunset. Yet, she’s so much more than that.
A few characteristics of the Proverbs 31 woman are:
- Diligent (31:15)
- Caring (31:20)
- Hardworking (21:27)
- Trusting in the Lord (31:30)
This is the type of material teen girls, and young married women need to know! We need women to teach them! Trust me. They see the exact opposite on every form of media available. They need to know that just because they are a woman doesn’t mean they're less than, but that they are called to do so much more. Then, they need to be trained on how to serve their role as unto the Lord.
I think Elisabeth said Christian women are different because they are helpmates, lovers, problem solvers, friends, and unique creatures put upon the earth to serve the Lord with gladness…and there is no other job like it. So may the older recognize their calling and train them up in truth.
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts (Colossians 3:16).
