Today's post was written by our women's minister, Dawn Stephens.

As I reached a milestone birthday on February 3 of this year (1964 was a very good year!), I have felt compelled to speak to my generation of Christian women.

As a women's ministry leader since 1992, I have not experienced the overwhelming desire of young women (ages 22-40) to be discipled and mentored by an older woman, as I have the past 2-3 years.

If we are going to effectively mentor and disciple this generation of women, we must embrace our age and see our life experiences as fuel for a mentoring lifestyle.

This lifestyle is then more easily infused into the next generation of wives, mothers, business owners, government influencers, and future matriarchs of the faith.

I am afraid our culture with all of its trappings has enabled my generation to "stay young" longer than God's design for our days. Therefore, we can infer that age is bad and to be avoided at all costs.

Instead, let's focus on what God's Word says about our age:

 

"Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life. " - Proverbs 16:31


If we color or hide our "crown of glory" because we don't see our age as something to be valued, we miss out on the blessing of investing, teaching, and multiplying ourselves into younger women. Are we trying to stay too young for too long and never step into our role as the "older woman" that Scripture describes?

I'm not saying don't cover those roots or care for your skin - I certainly do! But I am encouraging you to see the external evidence of age as an affirming expression of God given wisdom and experience in your life.

Sisters in Christ, talk with God about what you believe about your age, and ask Him to show you if you are running from it or embracing it for your good (and the good of others) and His glory.

 

 

"Older women (Is that me?) 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

 

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