Women: You Have a Vision and a Calling

If you qualify as an older woman, there’s a reason you’ve been learning about life all these years. More than one reason, actually. One is to help you accumulate godly wisdom—from your mistakes as well as your triumphs—and apply that wisdom to the hurdles you encounter. But equally important is the ability to share that hard-won wisdom with others, especially those who aren’t as far along in their journey as you are.

Women who by God’s grace have cultivated the fruit of the Spirit in their lives are to come alongside other women who need help developing self-control, kindness, and well-ordered priorities.

Wives who have learned how to love and respect their husbands well over the long haul—“for better, for worse”—are to teach younger women how it’s done. Mothers who have faithfully raised and trained their own children are to use the wisdom they’ve gained in the classroom of experience to teach younger women who are in the childbearing/child-rearing years.

This is our job whether we’re forty, sixty, eighty—whatever. Our job is to embody the wisdom of God’s Word in such a way that we can effectively teach it to others—not just out of our notebooks, but out of our lives. This vision and calling is not just for some supposed class of spiritual superstars or for those among us who possess special teaching gifts. And it’s not just for women who are wives and mothers. We are all called to cultivate godly character—to model what it looks like to live out the gospel in every area of our lives. Then we are to teach those women coming behind us how to do the same. As we do this—with our lives, our lips, our labors, our love—our own growth in grace is furthered, the baton of authentic faith is passed on to the next generation, the health of the church is preserved, and its witness to the world is enhanced.

“We are all called to cultivate godly character.”

This is a call to grow up and step up. “By this time, you ought to be teachers,” God’s Word says to believers who have had ample time and opportunity to learn sound doctrine and put it into practice (Heb. 5:12).

But this mandate is not intended to weigh us down with one more obligation, one more burden to be borne. Far from it. God is offering us the incredible privilege and joy of engaging with Him in molding lives (including our own) into the likeness of Jesus, adorned by sound doctrine and ultimately making the gospel beautiful in the eyes of all around. And as anyone who has said yes to this challenge knows, the process itself provides great satisfaction. Unlikely friendships form. Sweet seasons of prayer, Bible study, and spiritual growth are shared.

Why would we not want to be part of that?