My beautiful little sister, Courtney, or “Cookie” as my children call her, recently came and spent a week with us. She is expecting her first baby in early 2026 and this was most likely our last chance to soak up time together before her baby boy arrives.
She came with a thousand questions about baby clothes, safe sleep, birth plans, and postpartum. She slept with my enormous pregnancy pillow and tried on my favorite Cadenshae leggings. I talked her through night feeds and what to do when baby has a cold. It was a really precious time together as I had the privilege of initiating her into early motherhood.
But something else really beautiful happened.
We had decided that, because Cookie was visiting for a decent chunk of time, we should do our best to keep a normal routine and take her along for the ride. During her time with us, we attended playgroup, church, bible study, homeschool co-op, and a toddler birthday party – all of which were filled with seasoned mothers who love the Lord and who are thankful for their husbands and children and the life they share together.
The beauty of my community really shone during my sister’s visit with us. These friends shared with my sister about their pregnancies, labours, births, and postpartum. They shared how the Lord filled them with peace when they would have been terrified. They share how our bodies are designed to bring forth new life. They shared what went well, what to watch out for and what worked for them.
They demystified the process from ten different perspectives, all with a resounding: “No matter what happens, God will be with you. It will be hard, but that isn’t bad. Motherhood is beautiful, and you are made for it.”
Titus 2:3-5 says:
[3] 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. (ESV)
The word “older” is generally applied to the 50+ category, and perhaps that is what was intended (I am no bible scholar), but I felt this conviction that many of us are both the older woman and the younger woman, when we do not feel like either. We are to be in community, setting an example of what is good and right before the Lord, encouraging others to do the same, while still receiving wisdom from the women who have gone before us through marriage and motherhood and everything in between.
My friends are doing this. I see them, week after week, setting a beautiful example of what it means to be yielded to God throughout these busy years: speaking to their children with self-control and patience, working at home, often without witness or thanks, expressing kindness to all who encounter them and faithfully submitting to their husbands. I can’t think of a time when I have heard slander pass from their lips or heard of them being drunk. These are true Titus 2 women and their fellowship graciously calls those around them to do likewise. They are also the younger women, receiving with humility the encouragement, wisdom and prayer offered by the aged women, to continue the good work that the Lord has set before them without growing weary (Gal 6:9).
Do they do this perfectly? I’m sure they don’t – none of us do. But the goal is to pursue God together, in community.
Titus 2 is not a checklist — it’s a picture of flourishing. It paints a vision of women living shoulder to shoulder, passing down what is good and receiving what we lack. It reminds us that the Christian life is strengthened through presence, example, and faithful encouragement. As we lean into that — imperfectly but sincerely — our homes, our churches, and our children are shaped by the quiet beauty of godly womanhood lived out in real time.
Imagine intergenerational communities of women who call each other to higher things, pray for each other and share their wisdom and zeal through all stages of life, suffering and joy, chaos and calm. We can grow together, calling each other onward and upward.
Let me know if you are experiencing this beauty in your own life – or what you are doing to cultivate it! I’d love to hear from you.
