Ladies of the Church

This post has been mulling around in my head for the last several days. Last weekend I headed back home to Illinois for a quick trip. Over the past year I have started listening to podcasts when I travel on my own. It makes the time go by faster than just listening to music. One of my favorite podcasts to listen to is Jamie Ivey’s podcast, The Happy Hour. My five hour drive home is truly a much happier one when I listen to her guests share their stories. I have been left encouraged and inspired on more than one occasion.

It was on one of Jamie’s most recent podcast episodes (and I honestly don’t remember who she was interviewing, but it was a female) where the guest said the words “ladies of the church” and she was talking about women who have mentored her, who she’s looked to for Biblical counseling and guidance. I remember Jamie saying “Ladies of the church…that would make a great book!” and I thought yeah, it really would, or, at the very least, a blogpost. And I began formulating one in my head. Because, for any female who has grown up in church or attended church for any length of time, more than likely you can list a handful of women who have influenced your life.

Characteristics of these ladies

I grew up attending Baptist churches and the first church I ever attended is where my grandparents still attend, along with the majority of the older couples who attended back then. (What’s funny is these couples seemed old to me then and now a lot of them are in their 80’s and close to 90.) All of these women have known me since I was born. These women taught Sunday School, VBS, Bible drills, used flannelgraph stories and organized a plethora of different events at the church.

These women were and still are grounded in their faith. They are prayer warriors. You can go to them for just about anything, especially when you need prayer. I remember spending time with one of them and my grandma in a screened-in porch on a beautiful day, laughing with them and learning from them. The world felt slower back then and it seemed we had more time. I’ve spent countless hours with these women over my lifetime and yet still, somehow, it just doesn’t seem like it’s been enough.

My parents had three girls and while my sisters and I learned a lot from our mother, she has always had a village of other women investing in her daughters’ lives. The amazing part is that this village of women, particularly the women from the first church we attended, also has seen our mom grow up. Our mom has spent hours with us girls, helping us memorize Scripture verses and lyrics to songs we learned to sing in church. She has invested so much time and energy into making sure her daughters were prepared to one day be wives and mothers.

Who are these ladies of the church?

In Titus 2:3-5, it says “the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things- that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.”

These ladies of the church have been teachers of good things. I can tell you that specifically in my single days these ladies prayed for me and basically gave me marital advice before I was even getting married. They’ve been faithful women, married to their husbands for decades. Loving mothers and wives and wonderful homemakers. When I think of these women, I always think of Timothy and his grandmother, Lois, and mother, Eunice, who had great faith in God and taught him well.

So, to the ladies of the church in my life…the Madge’s, Pat’s, Norma’s, Doris’s, and many others who have influenced my life in a godly way…I pray that I can be a mentor to a young lady one day and become one of those ladies of the church to her.