Who’s Training Who…and for What?
It’s important that I write this testimonial word of encouragement to our women. Who has signed up for skills training?
What is Skills Training and why would I want to take the time to do it? I mean, is it really all that necessary?
Titus 2:3-5 Tree of Life Version (TLV)
3 Likewise, older women are to be sanctified in demeanor—not backbiting or enslaved to much wine. Let them be teachers of what is good, 4 so that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, managing their household, kind, submitted to their own husbands, so that God’s word may not be dishonored.
When was the last time you gathered with a group of women to think deeply upon the things of G-d? When was the last time you STAYED with a group of women to better understand spiritual principals and better understand one another (about whom those Biblical principals instruct us!)?
Tucked within our family’s eight moves to different states through the years, places and homes, I have found one common thread in regards to initiating gatherings of women for the sake of study and fellowship.
No matter where we lived or what church denomination we attended, there were TWO LIES that surfaced in each place and within the initial stages of ‘gathering holy women’:
- Older Women always said: ‘I don’t have anything to offer’
- Younger Women always professed: ‘I don’t have time for study’
Like clockwork, always the same responses were given.
Interesting. Let me back up…I gathered women who wanted to dive deeper into the Scriptures because I NEEDED IT. And whoever wanted to come along and teach me as well was WELCOME. Sunday sermons weren’t enough for my hungry and confused soul. And I always found others like myself who wanted to spend time ENJOYING the study of The Holy Text while this Holiness studied us as well.
So I thought to myself ‘people are the same everywhere you go!’ AND ‘the enemy is very busy’.
What the older women meant was ‘I’m trusting in what the enemy has told me rather than what G-d speaks over me’.
What the younger women meant was ‘I really have better things to do than sit in a circle of women I really don’t know and receive nothing’.
Now I get what both are saying, but they are LIES nonetheless. Whatever their motives or current life experiences for believing those lies, the responses remained the same.
One group believed they had nothing to give.
The other group didn’t understand the value of receiving.
From today’s Mishlei (Proverbs) 27:
Without ‘sharpening’, our weapons are dull. And I’ve not even mentioned the fact that our faces (countenance) need lifting. Iron sharpening is the remedy for a downcast spirit. Can you say free face lifts!?
Another interesting fact about the word for ‘sharpen’ is that it shares the same parent root as UNITY:
A) dh (ההד HhD) AC: CO: Unite AB: : Two or more coming together as a unity. The sharp edge of a blade is the coming together of the two to one point.
Yes, coming together as Acts 2:42-47 reveals (in singleness of passion/one accord), lifts our faces while sharping our weapons of warfare in G-d’s Holy Kingdom.
G-d’s purposes for us are revealed IN UNITY.
My purpose in writing this is that you will SEE PAST THE LIES. The lies the enemy speaks, the ones you speak to yourself, as well as the ones spoken over you in your past. They do not agree with Truth, therefore you have to remove them and replace them with Truth. It’s a hard practice, but it’s necessary for LIFE and moving forward.
Older (spiritually maturing) women, you are valuable in the Kingdom!!! The wisdom you’ve gained with years is necessary to TEACH the younger women ‘how to love our husbands and children’ (Titus 2:3-5). You’ve made it this far and that alone is enough to give HOPE to the younger woman in a struggle for meaning, purpose and even breath for that day. Now, love, learn and teach!
Younger women, you must MAKE TIME to enjoy the wisdom of those who’ve gone before you and be open to their corrective counsel. Younger women ought all to be IN TRAINING putting their spiritual lives in order. Your husband, your children and a future generation of holy women are dependent upon you ‘walking with G-d’!
Women, WE are BUILDERS!
It takes SKILL TO BUILD anything that will last and function properly.
‘A Wise Ishah BUILDS her home, but a foolish one tears it down with her own hands’-Proverbs 14:1
Married or single, Ezer Kenegdo was BUILT TO BUILD. Gain the skills necessary for Holy and productive BUILDING of the Kingdom and watch your countenance be sharpened in the process by G-d’s Spirit of UNITY!
LET’S BUILD…