teach the younger

Some moms in our church are getting together once a week, and discussing this book called Feminine Appeal. So far I really like it and I'm gleaning a lot of wisdom from it. It's based on the scripture in Titus 2:3-5 which says,
"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."
In the first chapter of the book the author talks about how important it is for older women to teach the younger women how to be godly wives and mothers. She makes the point that as a culture we require certification, training and degrees for "vocations of lesser importance" but our culture will hand over marriage and motherhood without blinking an eye.
This is so true! I have believed for a long time that being a godly wife and mother is a very high calling, and a lot of work. How can anyone expect to be a natural at it unless they are taught? You don't send someone that has never even boiled water into a kitchen and expect them to make creme brulee.
She also says that when Paul wrote this, she feels he was not picturing seminars, Bible studies, or books. Although those things are beneficial, she feels that he was talking about the older women teaching the everyday things. Here is an awesome quote from the book:
"It would help younger women to know there are a few listening ears when they don't know what to do with an uncommunicative husband, a 25 pound turkey, or a two-year-old's tantrum... He [Paul] meant the simple things, the everyday example, the willingness to take time from one's own concerns to pray with the anxious mother, to walk with her the way of the cross-with its tremendous demands of patience, selflessness, loving kindness-and to show her, in the ordinariness of Monday through Saturday, how to keep a quiet heart."
I earnestly pray that the women and men of the church would start to get this concept. There are some people that get it, but I see so many young women that have no one to turn to when life's questions arise.
If you have some free time, read the book.
Feminine Appeal Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother
by Carolyn Mahaney