I promised the return of Wednesday's Woman in November, and I'm going to keep my promise! I've got some great ladies lined up to share about their own Titus 2 women, but I'm going to start us back with one of my own. I believe she can be a source of hope and encouragement for other women too!
Because we live in a fallen world, and previous generations didn't instill too strongly the importance of Christian women marrying only godly men, there are so many women married to lost men or men who aren't bearing their roles of spiritual leader too well. 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, "Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?" - and it goes on from there until the end of the chapter talking about our need to be separate from any unclean things or people. We've got to train our daughters to only marry godly men, where to find them, and how to remain virtuous until the day God has appointed they find them.
I'm going to try not to run off onto a tangent that lasts too long here...But, I see single Christian women often flirting with the wrong kind of men while ignoring good catches altogether, and it drives me bonkers! Bad boys do not bring lasting happiness!
So back to my Wednesday's Woman. My husband's paternal grandmother, Louise, was a precious, godly woman in every way imaginable. She was married to a lost man, Fred, for many, many years. She bore him seven children. She was a helper to him in their home. Divorce was never a thought. She only did what God commanded her, "Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, even if some disobey the Christian message, they may be won over without a message by the way their wives live, when they observe your pure, reverent lives," 1 Peter 3:1-2 HCSB.
We don't see this often in today's culture. Even Christian women may divorce their lost husbands because they don't want their children to grow up in a divided home. Or, even more often, Christian women will live with their lost husbands but not bear submissive spirits and nag their lost husbands about what they should be doing (going to church, leading their families in Bible study, etc.). This is why I share the example of Granny Louise.
All those years that Fred was lost, Louise loved him, submitted to his leadership in every way that didn't lead her to sin, and didn't nag him about church. She prayed for her husband, and she didn't beg him to read Scripture to the kids. She did it herself, every morning at breakfast that she lovingly prepared. Fred wasn't walking away from her biscuits, so he heard it too!
As for church attendance, she still got her children ready herself (no excuses that getting kids ready by yourself is too hard!). Louise didn't have a driver's license, so Fred drove them. Why not? She was a good woman to him all the rest of the week, so he was willing to carry her there, even though that meant he had to sit in the car and wait on his family. No air conditioning in the church meant the windows were open. Fred heard the preaching of God's word!
Those years of Louise loving and serving the Lord despite her husband's leadership bore fruit. Fred accepted Jesus as his Savior in 1966. Calculating from the time they were married (just prior to Fred's leaving to serve in WWII), I figure they were married about twenty-three years before Fred became the spiritual leader of his home. And, he began serving in his church. It wasn't a one-day deal.
Ladies, if your husband is lost, don't give up hope! Don't stop doing the things you know to be right. God's timing is perfect!
As for other fruit from this couple: Six of their seven children also came to know the Lord, and I personally know well four of the men were and are mighty men of God. Three of their four grandsons are in ministry full time, and the fourth grandson is thirteen years old. God gave Louise a great lineage of grace. He can do it in your home too!
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