I had coffee with some lovely young ladies this past weekend! I was excited they let me hang out with them, after all, I am old compared to them! We shared some pastries, some laughs, some triumphs and some struggles. It made me think about how much society has changed in the last generation.
As we sat there chatting, I realized that my generation isn’t doing a great job at something we are supposed to be doing – teaching the younger women. In fact, I have found myself repeating the phrase, “we used to …..” way too often lately and wondering why we aren’t anymore. (I know that COVID stopped a lot of things, but all of this started before COVID.)
My great-grandmother had a quilting frame that hung from her ceiling. I remember visiting her as a little girl and seeing it hang there. There was a time when ladies would get together and quilt. They would talk about real things! They would encourage one another. They would share recipes, parenting strategies, and encourage wives who were dealing with struggles in their marriage. It was advice given from experience and out of love for others. It was a form of therapy that ended with a beautiful handmade quilt.
Why has that changed?
It used to be that when kids grew up, they settled close to home. Families would get together for Sunday lunch. They would cook together and clean together. They would talk. Really talk. You knew everything that was going on with every aunt, uncle and cousin.
With the mobility of our society, biological families no longer live close together, but there is no reason that a church family can’t do these things. In fact, we are called to do just that in scripture:
“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 train 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
It is the responsibility of the older women to teach the younger women, and I fear that we are not taking that responsibility as seriously as we should. We are missing opportunities to love on and care for those who may be facing situations that we could help them through. Situations that we have been through and learned from in years past.
Before we left the coffee shop, I challenged those young ladies to introduce themselves to an older woman at church the next morning. I challenge you to do the same. If you are older, seek out a younger woman to meet. If you are younger, seek out an older woman. Maybe it is someone you have seen at church that you have wanted to meet because of her sense of style, or her wisdom in Bible class. Maybe you heard that she had a struggle similar to something that you are facing. Just pick someone and say, “Hi, my name is _______, and I have been wanting to meet you.”
After that, I challenge you to plan an event that brings together ladies from different generations. Have an old-fashioned tea, work on your sewing projects together, have coffee, do whatever it takes. Start right now and be urgent about it! We have lost a lot of time already and have no more time to waste!
With Eyes on the Cross 