pdf of Issacharian Daughters – ID040
Monday, 28 May 2007
Dear Girls,
40th issue ??Titus 2
Since I have started this Issacharian Daughters newsletter, I have had so many girls sign up for it. Many of you have told me a little bit about yourselves and have told me about your own ministries to girls and have given website information. I would have loved to have written back personally to each of you who has signed up, but I regret time does not allow such a pleasure for myself. I do want to thank those of you who have sent personal notes to me. In all the notes there is one overriding theme which I’d like to share with you all. It is this: many of you in various ways are witnessing, ministering, mentoring or simply being an example to many other younger girls.
I would like to take this opportunity to say that this is simply splendid!
I have often noted that women in my mother’s generation have suffered from the lack of Titus 2 women in their lives. My mother and many of your mothers too are the pioneers in the home education movement which started in the USA in the late 70s and in New Zealand in the early 80s. Wherever they were, they bravely began on this path of teaching their children on their own to the disapprobation of their parents, the scorn of their church and disbelief of the world at large. They had little or no support and encouragement. What about the older women? There were few who would have understood or approved of the home education step our mothers were taking. If they did, then perhaps they were able to act as Titus 2 women in our mothers lives. Even now many women suffer from the effects of feminism. After they have raised their own children, they enter the workforce not realising that the Lord has a great purpose and great work for older women to perform: that of teaching the younger women. And many women have been influenced by our youth-centred culture that their grey heads, experience and wisdom mean nothing to us younger ones. This is really a tragic state of things.
I have been so encouraged by your notes to me and your letters telling me about yourselves because they show over and over that this trend may be about to change. Our generation may be the generation which brings back the Titus 2 women. I believe we can do this, and we are doing this in three ways.
First we greatly desire the input of older women. We are reaching up to them and telling them that we value their teaching. We are asking them to impart their wisdom to us and to be older women in our lives.
Second we are taking note of the things older women are to teach younger women and we are seeking to learn these and put them into practice in our lives. We greatly desire to learn how to love our husbands, love our children, be good, discreet, pure, homemakers and to be submissive to our husbands. We don’t want to blaspheme God’s Word. In this way we are preparing to be older women in the future.
Third we are building relationships with younger girls. We are encouraging them, being a witness to them and pointing them in the right direction.
As I see this here in New Zealand and in the USA and in other locations, I am filled with such joy. Would our mothers, would our parents ever have anticipated that their faithfulness in home educating us would start a chain reaction of return to the Biblical pattern in other areas of life too? Could they have forseen that keeping their daughters at home to teach them would result in a generation of girls who would look again to the Titus 2 model and desire to reinstate it in their lives and in their churches? Perhaps they couldn’t forsee such a thing, but God certainly did. He ordained it.
So now may I encourage us to continue to stand on our parents’ shoulders and to build on the foundation they have laid for us.
For the Greater Glory of God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
Genevieve SmithIssacharian Daughter
Notes:
I have sent this email to girls who have embraced a vision of victorious daughterhood as well as those who may be thinking about doing so (and even to some girls who may just like some encouragement regarding different areas of home life). Some of the girls are in the USA, UK, Australia and other parts of the world. Most are in New Zealand. You are welcome to forward this email on to others so long as you do so in its entirety. If you do not want to receive these emails please just send a return email to me stating that fact. If you know of other girls who would be encouraged by receiving these emails, feel free to forward the email to them or send me their email address.