Are You a Titus Woman?

I am blessed with many positive people in my life who encourage me, support my efforts and know just the right thing to say.  When health struggles plague me, when fear and doubt creep; I am grateful for the reminder I am blessed to be a work in progress.  I am grateful God continues to refine me to be the woman he calls me to be…

I stumbled on a blog which talked about the qualities young women should learn from older women.  I guess in years – I would be the older woman but I am still a work in progress.  Here are the qualities as they are listed 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, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

1) Self-Control – definitely a work in progress here.  She is self-controlled with her spending habits, her words, her temper, her appetites, her priorities, and her use of time.   Yea, I would have to stay this is a HUGE struggle for me.  I call out for help when I am in a weak moment or in a crisis .  My prayer life is getting stronger as I some to God each morning.  As she pursues intimacy with God, her soul is satisfied and she finds contentment and strength through his Spirit. For me, contentment leads to self-control and with God’s help, I work on this daily.

2) Purity.  By God’s grace, this is something I obtained over the years.  The greek word for purity here is ‘hagnos’ and is referring to moral and sexual purity.  Unfortunately this was not the case growing up, but with a gift from God – my daughter Belinda, I was able to work towards this.

3) Working at Home.  A Godly woman is not lazy – she is to be a hard worker.  Okay, I am sure God did not mean for me to be a workaholic, unable to put down the “gadgets” and stop working.  The passage does talk about being skilled in our homemaking abilities as well.   We should shine like lights in a dark world. We should love maintaining a warm cozy home for our family and those passing through.  I have never professed to be good at the homemaking abilities – dust bunnies can count on a home for a little while BUT we are always neat.  I love to care for my family at home and am really more of an introvert.  I am a work in progress..

4) Kind.  A kind woman is a woman who is careful with her words, generous, thoughtful and compassionate. She is cheerfully helpful and gracious when wronged. Without sounding like I am bragging, I would say I am kind.  This is why my career in social work was a success.  I pray each day I am able to apply the same principles to my Thirty One business.  Yes, I can look back on the work I did and say “you did well”.

5) Submissive to their own husbands.  There’s just one specific relationship where God has called us to submit and it is to our husband.  She stands out in this modern world as a woman who allows her husband to take the lead.  This is definitely a work in progress.  On most days, I am okay with this and am willing to let hubby take the lead. Then there are those days when the independent woman kicks in – and he will let me know about it.  I am grateful he understands it is not intentional but comes from years of being an independent single mom.

I talk a lot about being a Proverbs woman as Thirty One is based on Proverbs 31 – The Virtuous Woman but the description in Titus made it a little easier to see myself as a work in progress.  I am a work in progress and JUST FOR TODAY, I will continue to work on this.  What about you?

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

Love Your Hubby

Have you ever thought that your husband is taking time away from what you want “to do”, or  that it take alot of energy to please him or that you repeatedly need to compromise?  Do you feel like your husband took your dreams, goals and time?  Do you feel bitter or even “snarky” at times?  And a bitter wife – isn’t pretty. Honestly, I never really felt like this but I have been told that I can get a little snarky!

Titus 2:3-5 says:

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

I always thought that it would be natural to love my hubby – but sadly sometimes it is not. I know that I can’t be the only one who has a moment or a day when she says “if only……”, right?  Don’t get me wrong, I love my hubby and am blessed to have him in my life but there are those moments…

Here are some ways to love our hubby (and our kids) courtesy of Women Living Well:

1.) Think loving thoughts.

I Corinthians 13:4-8 says love is patient, kind, not rude or self-seeking, not easily angered and on and on the list goes.

I need to memorize this.  I need to be patient when hubby is late.  When hubby needs my help – I need to be understanding and not self-seeking.  A Christian home should be warm and loving as we reflect the love of Jesus to our families.  Some days this is such a struggle for me.  Sometime the craziness of the day, the to do list, the juggling of work, home and business get the best of me.

2.) Be Kind and Tenderhearted.  When hubby pushes my last button, I explode and get snarky!  I need to exchange these sinful traits with kindness, compassion and a tender heart.  Those random acts of kindness that we want to share with the world, why not start with home.  Ladies, lets be honest, we feel like we are always giving but are we doing it out of kindness or out of of obligation.  What if we were to change the feelings behind what we do, would the response be different?  I don’t know, maybe.

3.) Express Affection and Delight in Your Husband

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth– for your love is more delightful than wine.”  Song of Solomon 1:2

This one was an AHA!  I haven’t been affectionate lately.  I stopped holding his hand, rubbing his back, and greeting him with a smile and a kiss. I am sure that hubby sometimes wonder if I even like him,  though he knows that I love him.   Giving out hugs and kisses generously is something that has slipped away.  Don’t get me wrong, things are good, we are comfortable and content with each other.

As time goes on, life gets in the way.  We get busy and the things that we used to do, we no longer do.  Take time for those you love – this is a reminder for me too.  Do we stop pursuing the heart of our husbands once we have them?  I know that sometimes that is the case for men but what about us, aren’t we the same?

Take time today to surprise your hubby with a gentle kiss or grab his hand as you walk into church or a store or better yet perform some random act of kindness.  Show him how much you love him – like you did when you were dating.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

 

 

 

A Titus Woman

Another week of AHA’s in my life… I am blessed to have positive people around me who encourage me, support my efforts and know just the right thing to say.  Reflecting on this past week, despite the tears, the internal struggles and the self tongue lashing, I realized that I am blessed to be a work in progress.  I am grateful that God continues to refine me to be the woman that he calls me to be…

A recent blog talked about the qualities that young women should learn and that older women (I guess that means me) need to be a role model.  So, I decided to reflect on each of these qualities as there were listed 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, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

This should be an interesting retrospect…

1.) Self-Control – definitely a work in progress here.  She is self-controlled with her spending habits, her words, her temper, her appetites, her priorities, and her use of time.   Yea, I would have to stay this is a HUGE struggle for me.  I call out for help when I am in a weak moment or in a crisis and I would have to say that my prayer life is definitely not strong.  As she pursues intimacy with God, her soul is satisfied and she finds contentment and strength through his Spirit. For me, contentment leads to self-control and with God’s help, I work on this daily.

2.) Purity.  By God’s grace, this is something that I have obtained over the years.  The greek word for purity here is ‘hagnos’ and is referring to moral and sexual purity.  Unfortunately this was not the case growing up, but with a gift from God – my daughter Belinda, I was able to work towards this. Now I am proud to say that I am faithful to my husband of 13 years (this is how long we have been together).

3.) Working at Home.  A Godly woman is not lazy – she is to be a hard worker.  Okay, I am sure that God did not mean for me to be a workaholic, unable to put down the “gadgets” and stop working.  The passage does talk about being skilled in our homemaking abilities as well.   We should shine like lights in a dark world. We should love maintaining a warm cozy home for our family and those passing through.  I have never professed to be good at the homemaking abilities – dust bunnies can count on a home for a little while BUT we are always neat.  This is a work in progress..

4.) Kind.  A kind woman is a woman who is careful with her words, generous, thoughtful and compassionate. She is cheerfully helpful and gracious when wronged. Without sounding like I am bragging, I would say I am kind.  I guess that is why my career in social work was a success.  I pray that I am able to apply the same principles to my Thirty One business.  Yes, I can look back on the work that I did and say “you did well”..

5.) Submissive to their own husbands.  There’s just one specific relationship where God has called us to submit and it is to our husband.  She stands out in this modern world as a woman who allows her husband to take the lead.  This is definitely a work in progress.  On most days, I am okay with this and am willing to let hubby take the lead. Then there are those days when the independent woman kicks in – and he will let me know about it.  I am grateful that he understands that it is not intentional but comes from years of being an independent single mom.

I talk a lot about being a Proverbs woman as Thirty One is based on Proverbs 31 – The Virtuous Woman but the description in Titus made it a little easier to see myself as a work in progress.  I am a work in progress and JUST FOR TODAY, I am will work on this.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!