I sat with a group of women the other night, and listened as a young mother described how “happy” she was that she has her young children in daycare 5 days a week from 8am – 5 pm. She has more time for herself and her husband.

An older woman, a church-going, serve-the-community, woman looked at the young mom and exclaimed, “Good for you. If you aren’t happy, your kids won’t be happy.”

I’m not sure when we lost our way. But perhaps, it’s never been completely easy, or natural, or just automatic, for young women to love their husbands and children well.

It may seem shocking to admit that.

But I suspect this was an issue, even for the early church, as Paul wrote these words of instruction in his letter to Titus-

“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)

The older women were to TRAIN the younger women to do the things above so “that the word of God may not be reviled”.

This is something deserving of our attention.

And what if there’s something much bigger to be gained than a temporary happiness? What if that something doesn’t come easy?

And what if, our short-sighted, self-focused, elusive quest for “happiness” will never truly satisfy us; and even, and often, leads to broken homes and broken lives?

Oh, if this were a post about self-care, it would probably be shared a gazillion times.

But what if real joy is found in denying ourselves and learning to do messy, tiresome, mundane, and hard things well?

Things the world will never applaud, but on which the Savior places high value—things like loving our husbands, loving our children, being self-controlled, pure, working at home, being kind, and submissive to our own husbands, so that the word of God may not be reviled.

None of THAT comes easily or naturally. ALL of that requires a daily dependency on the Lord and His strength.

But friend, that’s where the GOOD STUFF lives! That’s where eternal treasures are created! That’s where God does bigger things, in and through us, than we ever thought or imagined.

Oh, older women, let’s put down our wine glasses (did you read the first part of the scripture I shared above?!) for some reason, that makes me snicker every time.

Seriously, let’s come alongside these young mommas and encourage them to deny themselves ,hold tight to Jesus, and do the hard, good stuff.

Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matt 16:24-25)

What a Savior!

aweandwonder

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