Come Alongside One Another

Week 43, Tuesday

Marilyn Kirkpatrick

Older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not addicted to much wine. [They are] to teach what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, pure, good homemakers, and submissive to their husbands, so that God’s message will not be slandered. Titus 2:3-5 (hcsb)

Over the thirty-three years I have been a Christian, God has always placed people in my life who have encouraged me in my walk with the Lord. Many have spoken truth into my life, even when I didn’t necessarily want to hear the truth. I am thankful for those who God has called alongside me and for those He continues to bring into my life.

When I first got involved at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida, I was a stay-at-home mom and spent countless hours with other women who poured into my life, helping me learn how to be a wife and mother and instructing me in biblical principles and truths that I could apply. Today it seems we are so disconnected from one another. Face-to-face encounters are replaced with online social networking sites. We rarely spend time with one another learning how to cook a favorite recipe or making a new craft, but rather we are busy posting our lives in public sites online and text messaging one another.

I love the passage in Proverbs 27 that says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (verse 17). In Titus 2:3-5, we find this same theme applied to our lives as women. It states that the older women are to teach the younger women in all areas of life: their homes, their marriages, their parenting, their social lives as well as their moral lives. Today we call this principle mentoring. Several of the ministries for women we have in our church include this concept of mentoring; the older teach and instruct the younger women.

We need to return to the Bible’s instruction to “walk with the wise.” When we walk with someone, we travel the same road, in the same direction, and for the same purpose. God has called us to come alongside one another and to personally spend time investing in the lives of others. It also means that we will walk through some difficult times with one another and yet not be afraid to share biblical truths that not only encourage, but also motivate one another to walk according to God’s Word. We need relationships wherein we hold one another accountable to live out God’s Word in every area of our lives, as Titus instructed women to do so long ago.

Lord, I am thankful for those You have allowed in my life to mentor and encourage me. Help me to come alongside those of the next generation to help them live their lives pleasing and acceptable before You. Amen.