I am asking for forgiveness for my lack of interest in all those lovely people who friended me just recently. I have just now been reprimanded by D and reminded that I have not friended back.  What! Do I have to do that I asked. Duh. Oh well, I not a geek after all. Sorry. I will actually get to read Your posts now.

Recently this scripture has come up in conversation a couple of times and it is interesting to hear what people think about the older women teaching the younger women. So is Paul speaking to only the generation he was in or is this meant for all of us?
What constitutes "older"? Is it just physical age? Does the woman teaching have to specifically be older that the woman being taught? Can older women learn anything from younger women? Is this scripture really being lived out in our churches?

The scriptures advise older women "to be reverent in behaviour, 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" and here the scripture even goes as far as to give us a very good reason "why" we should do all of this-- so that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Do we really think the word of God can be blasphemed if we do not do what he suggests?

When I had children very little I always used to wish for an older women who had successfully raised her children to know and serve the Lord to help me with the struggles I was facing. At each stage of raising children I used to wonder where the older women were? I used to meet lots of women who could teach me "good" things like cooking, sewing, keeping house but lots of the other categories were missing in my life. My precious mum is a great one for helping me to "love my husband". I used to think she was - taking his side- only to realise many years later she was admonishing me to love him in spite of failings that I saw in him. (By the way, over the years I discovered those very things that were "failings" were in fact wonderful stable characteristics in his life. Praise God).

I really struggled with not seeing people applying scripture to their child raising and where were the people whose children didn't fall away? I am now one of the older women (I guess) but one of my flock has fallen away and so am I disqualified? Have I the right to speak to younger women? Using my own standard of judgement I would think that I have been disqualified. I still have a lot to learn. I am in a church at the moment that has lots of intergenerational families so maybe I can still learn a thing or two or three or four. Just meeting those women is difficult though as their lives are very full and they really don't need any new people in their lives.

What I have learned though is that I will continue to teach the younger women in my life, my daughters, and still look for that older woman.

I seem to have more questions than when I started but I am using this forum to write to myself and try to sort out my thinking. This has been a big exercise for me today and my hands are weary of typing.

I thought I might make a collection of my own thoughts somewhere and this is as good as any.  I may or may not write often but am nutting out some thoughts in my mind and realised if I don't write them out I will never get to the end of it. Tain is in the shower now so this is not the time but I will do it.!!