Feminine Appeal (Redesign) E-Book

Carolyn Mahaney

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 259

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2004

Beschreibung

Carolyn Mahaney identifies with the challenges facing women in today's world and meets them with the guidance of God's Word. The feminine virtues described in Titus 2 have transformed her life and the lives of countless other women. This book will show you the appeal of being a woman who lives for God and helps others do the same.

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We love this book! It’s a godsend for both wives and their husbands. It gives women a clear vision of biblical femininity and shows men what to encourage their wives towards. Carolyn has been a friend and mentor to Shannon, and we’re thrilled that through these pages she provides women of all ages the same honest, convicting, and hope-filled guidance.

—SHANNON AND JOSHUA HARRIS, author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye

This book has our ultimate endorsement—we have given it to all of our married daughters! Carolyn offers the kind of godly, seasoned counsel that is desperately needed by women today. She is practical, authentic, and biblically based. This book ought to be required reading for every woman—married or single!

—DENNIS AND BARBARA RAINEY, Founders, Family Life Today

We have been profoundly blessed by Carolyn’s insights and wisdom. Any woman who cultivates the feminine virtues described in this book will bring joy to her husband, peace to her home, and, most importantly, glory to her God.

—KEN AND CORLETTE SANDE, Peacemaker Ministries

Carolyn Mahaney’s Feminine Appeal serves Christian women with excellent teaching on God’s design for womanhood. Her explanations are thoroughly biblical, clear and compelling. The illustrations throughout effectively give evidence to the great joy that resides in obeying God’s clear teaching. May many women be stirred to embrace God’s wise calling upon their lives through applying the truths of this book.

—BRUCE AND JODI WARE, Southern Baptist Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky

Carolyn’s warm, practical, biblical, God-centered approach offers the mature mentoring that women of every age yearn for at times. For some, Feminine Appeal may be an excellent stand-in for the mentor they lack right now. For others, it will wonderfully complement the relationship they have with an older friend of the Titus 2 sort.

—JOHN AND NOEl PIPER, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis

A wonderful, challenging, enjoyable book filled with practical wisdom on marriage and raising children from a woman who evidently delights in being a wife and mother. This book is an outstanding example of how the Bible wants wise and mature Christian women to “train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands” (Titus 2:4-5).

—WAYNE AND MARGARET GRUDEM, Phoenix Seminary, Scottsdale, Arizona

Feminine Appeal has had a huge impact on the women of our church. Carolyn writes with a wonderful blend of soundness, encouragement, humility, and practicality that makes this book one of the best on the market for women desiring to please God in these most basic and crucial of life callings.Feminine Appeal has been the single most valuable book on Titus 2 living for women that I (Connie) have ever read.

—MARK AND CONNIE DEVER, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, D.C.

Feminine Appealis a beautiful book, filled with cleansing truth. In her gentle way, Carolyn Mahaney guides the reader in the proper direction with just the right mix of conviction, encouragement, and inspiration, all buttressed by sound biblical truth. This is an invaluable read for married women as well as for young women contemplating the call of married life. We give this book our highest recommendation.

—LISA AND GARY THOMAS, author of Sacred Marriage and Sacred Parenting

Carolyn Mahaney’s Feminine Appeal is biblical, practical, honest, gracious, and from the heart. This is Titus 2 at work—older women mentoring younger. Many women aren’t hearing this message. When they do, most will warmly embrace it. We highly recommend this book.

—RANDY AND NANCI ALCORN, Eternal Perspective Ministries

FEMININE

APPEAL

Feminine Appeal

Copyright © 2003, 2004 by Carolyn Mahaney and Sovereign Grace Ministries

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

Revised edition published in 2004 by Crossway Books.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Josh Dennis

Cover illustration: Getty Images

First printing 2003, revised edition 2004

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise designated, Scripture verses are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture designated NIV is taken from The Holy Bible: New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The “NIV” and “New International Version” trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible® Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mahaney, Carolyn, 1955-

Feminine appeal : seven virtues of a godly wife and mother / Carolyn Mahaney ; foreword by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 13: 978-1-58134-615-2 (tpbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 10: 1-58134-615-8

1. Christian women—Religious life. 2. Wives—Conduct of life. 3. Mothers—Conduct of life. 4. Virtues. I. Title.

BV4527.M235       2004

2004002857

248.8'435—dc22

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

CH                    20      19      18      17      16      15      14      13      12      11

20      19      18      17      16      15      14      13      12      11      10      9

Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

1Transformed by Titus 22The Delight of Loving My Husband3The Blessings of Loving My Children4The Safety of Self-Control5The Pleasure of Purity6The Honor of Working at Home7The Rewards of Kindness8The Beauty of Submission9Margaret’s Story

Study and Discussion Questions

Notes

More Resources from Carolyn Mahaney

Acknowledgments

My heartfelt thanks to:

The entire staff at Crossway Books for your genuine love for God and your bold commitment to sound doctrine. Working with you has been a sheer privilege for this inexperienced first-time author.

Mark Dever for making that phone call to Dr. Dennis (president of Crossway Books) to recommend that my “Titus 2” audiotapes be published in book form—even though you ­didn’t ask my permission!

Lane and Ebeth Dennis for your enthusiasm over the content of the “Titus 2” tapes and for pursuing me to write a book. Never in a million years would I have dreamed that I would take up such an endeavor. I am indebted to you both for the opportunity.

Marvin Padgett for your support and patience with me throughout this project, even when I requested yet another extension!

Lila Bishop for your skillful editing.

Josh and Shannon Harris, Gary and Lisa Thomas, Randy and Nanci Alcorn, Grant (my special “little brother”) and Karin Layman, Jeff Purswell, Mike Bullmore, Valori Maresco, Nancy Loftness, and Betsy Ricucci for your invaluable critique of the chapters you read.

The people of Covenant Life Church and Sovereign Grace Ministries for every encouraging word you shared, every loving note you wrote, and every sacrificial prayer you offered up to heaven on my behalf. You truly are “the dearest people on earth.”

The CLC pastors’ wives, SGM team wives, “The Crazy Ladies,” and my many other faithful friends. Although I desperately missed our regular times together over this past year, your unflagging care was a bastion of strength for me. Thank you for the many letters, e-mails, gifts, Starbucks drink deliveries, meals for my family, timely encouragement, and faithful prayers that you kept coming my way. How can I thank God enough for you?

Nora Earles for the dedication and joy with which you serve C. J. and me. Though it’s true that no one is indispensable, we think you are the exception!

Carolyn McCulley for enthusiastically applying your writing gift to help me transfer the “Titus 2” material into written form. Then again, that is how you approach life—seeking to use the gifts God has given you to make others a success.

My sisters, Janice Dillon and Helen Dickinson, for the heroic way you are caring for Dad and Mom during this season. In my view, your servanthood is unparalleled.

Brian, Steve, and Mike for loving your wives, my daughters. No mother has finer sons-in-law!

My four precious grandsons—Andrew, Liam, Jack, and Owen—for bringing me so much joy.

My son Chad for wanting to make the day I finished this book “a national holiday.” Your excitement meant so much to me, my son! But your faithful prayers meant even more. Thank you for your love for God and His Word, for your obedience and humility, and for the affection you show your family. You make your mother’s heart very glad.

My daughter Janelle. No words can ever express the gratitude I feel for the way you joyfully took responsibility for my household duties so I could be free to write. Never once did you complain, but instead constantly told me how much you loved serving me. There simply would be no book apart from your sacrifice. And thanks for making me laugh along the way. What a gift from God you are to me!

My daughter Kristin for wishing you were geographically closer so you could have practically helped me as well. Honey, I can assure you that the way you live your life blesses me even more. Thank you for how you prize your husband, tenderly love your boys, and effectively manage your home. You exemplify what is written on the pages of this book.

My daughter Nicole for accompanying and assisting me on the rigorous journey of writing—batting around ideas, hammering out issues, challenging points that ­didn’t make sense, and painstakingly poring over every single word of this book with me. And for persevering to the finish line—only two days before giving birth to your firstborn son! Your tenacity was remarkable. Your help was incalculable. There is no way I could have completed this journey without you. I am forever grateful to you, Nicole!

My husband, C. J., for being my chief editor, my mentor, my lover, my greatest encourager, and my dearest friend.

If ever two were one, then surely we;

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me, ye women, if you can.1

ANNE BRADSTREET, 1678

Foreword

By Nancy Leigh DeMoss

As I survey the landscape of women and women’s ministry in the Christian church today, I’d have to say that the view is both bleak and promising. There is cause for both grave concern and genuine hope.

First the bad news.

Christian women—no less than nonbelieving women—are in desperate need of the truth. The look of frustration, pain, or hollowness in so many eyes tells the story of women who are generally disappointed with life. They feel victimized—even traumatized—by circumstances that have fallen short of their hopes and dreams. As far as they are concerned, life just isn’t working.

And the problem goes even deeper than what is obvious at first glance. I believe that this sense of confusion and distress among Christian women is because, by and large, we are profoundly disoriented about who God is and who we are, and about our calling and mission in life—as women. Almost en masse indentwe have bought into a way of thinking about life and about womanhood, marriage, and family that is culturally accepted and politically correct but fundamentally flawed. For sure, it has not delivered what it promised.

But I said there’s good news also. And there is. Everywhere I go, as I speak about the ways of God and what it means to reflect the glory of God as a woman, I am greatly encouraged by the hunger and eagerness of many women to receive the Word and to act on it.

As has always been the case, God has a “remnant”—in this case, women who have ears to hear, who resonate with the truth, and who are willing to make tough, radical choices to reorient their lives around the Word of God.

Life isn’t necessarily easier for these women, but they are experiencing a sense of purpose, joy, and blessing as they see the connection between their lives and the grander scheme of the purposes of God and the kingdom of Christ.

Here’s something else I find heartening: God has raised up in our day a handful of women who are grounded in the Word and understand the biblical perspective of womanhood—women who are godly role models and gifted teachers, who are committed to communicate the truth to other women with courage and compassion.

Most of these women are not high-profile individuals—they have not sought the limelight or aspired to positions of influence; rather, they have spent years faithfully loving and serving their husbands and children and applying themselves to studying and living out the Word of God. Their influence is not the result of human credentials or impressive resumes. It is the fruit of godly living and sincere devotion to Christ.

Carolyn Mahaney is one such woman. Several years ago I received an audiotape series of her teaching for women based on Titus 2. As I listened, my heart rejoiced at her evident love for the truth and her clear, compelling presentation of this passage that outlines the “curriculum” that should be at the heart of all ministry by and to women. I was delighted when Carolyn agreed to put that teaching in book form.

Carolyn is not just a theoretician. Through nearly thirty years of marriage, and as the mother of four, she has lived out the priorities and virtues of Titus 2 in the laboratory of life. And, as the Scripture directs, she is a discipler and has poured out her life to teach the ways of God to others—first to her three daughters and then to women in the church.

If you are a “younger woman,” you hold in your hands a mentor, an excellent guide to spiritual maturity. This is your opportunity to sit at the feet of a woman who has been farther down the path than you and who is equipped to help you understand and embrace God’s plan and purpose for your life.

Perhaps you qualify as an “older woman.” You will find in this book a practical tool to help you fulfill your mandate to invest in the lives of younger women. According to Scripture, this is what you are to teach the women He puts in your life.

Feminine Appeal will help Christian women recover the nearly lost treasure of God’s way of thinking and living. I pray that God will use it to give birth to a supernatural movement of revival and reformation in the hearts and homes of women in our day.

1

Transformed by Titus 2

Racing the clock in rush-hour traffic, Lisa groaned as she saw the predictable bloom of brake lights in front of her. She was going to be late again to the daycare center. An adrenaline-driven surge of anxiety erupted.

“Come on, come on, come on!” she hissed at the cars ahead.

Arriving ten minutes late, she mentally calculated the fine levied on tardy parents while she hoisted her son Nate into his well-worn car seat. In between her son’s chatter on the way home, she tried to recall what she had purchased at the grocery store during her lunch hour. Did I remember to put away the ice cream? she wondered.

They arrived home only minutes before her husband, John, and their older son, Matthew. Entering the dark house, Lisa walked through the handsomely furnished rooms that sat empty all day and flicked on the overhead kitchen light. Grocery bags sat on every level surface, including the kitchen table.

One was leaking.

Dumping the melted ice cream in the trash, she popped something pre-made into the microwave. With one eye on the clock during dinner, Lisa estimated the amount of time she had to get the boys to bed and still pack for tomorrow’s trip.

“Come on, guys, let’s get ready for bed,” she said, pointing them toward the stairs.

Nate stopped at the door to the basement, an expansive playroom outfitted with a lavish collection of toys.

“Moh-mmeee,” whined the four-year-old, as he looked down the dark steps, “we ­didn’t even get to play with our own toys today.”

Irritation, guilt, and sympathy converged as she knelt to hug her child. Up close, she could see exhaustion spiked with contentious confusion in his face. But the schedule must go on. Up the stairs they went—the boys to bed, Lisa to her bedroom where the open suitcase sprawled on her side of the bed.

Something is very wrong here, she kept thinking to herself as she packed her bag by rote. This isn’t what the good life is supposed to feel like. Shoes? Check. Pantyhose? Check. But this is what I’ve chosen. Umbrella? Check. Phone adapter? Check.I’m the youngest vice president in company history. We have an impressive house in a good neighborhood. Prescriptions? Check. Toothbrush? Check. The boys are in the best daycare and preschool in town. We should be happy.

Why isn’t this satisfying? Why do I feel so overwhelmed?

MY GIRLHOOD DREAM

Though I have never tried to juggle a full-time job and a family like my friend Lisa, I have my own memories of being completely overwhelmed.

Growing up in sunny, rural Sarasota, Florida, my dream was to one day become a wife and mother. Shortly after graduating from high school, I worked as a secretary for a Christian organization. There I met a young, exuberant preacher from the Washington, D.C. area named C. J. Mahaney, and I soon suspected my girlhood dream might come true. Sure enough, just three months after our first meeting, he proposed. Without hesitation, I said yes.

I did not consider it a hardship that I would need to leave the place where I had lived my whole life to join my new husband in the suburbs of our nation’s capital. I was not apprehensive about saying good-bye to everyone and everything I had ever known in order to be this man’s wife. That is, until we got married. C. J. was twenty-one at that time. I was nineteen. I will never forget those early days as a new bride, now more than twenty-nine years ago.

Upon returning from our honeymoon, C. J. and I made our home in a tiny one-bedroom apartment. Though I loved being married, the cold winters of D.C. were not to my liking (I had never even seen snow before!). My husband and I were in love and the best of friends; however, I soon began to miss my family and friends in Florida, and new friendships were slow to develop.

But my greatest challenge—by far—was my desire to do this “wife thing” well, but I was not sure how to pull it off. I remember thinking: I wish there were a crash course I could take for this. I longed to have a strong, godly, joy-filled marriage, but I had seen so many marriages fail, even Christian marriages. And the couples all started out happy and in love like C. J. and me. Where did they go wrong? How could I make certain that we ­didn’t end up in the same place?

I yearned for someone to give me direction and guidance—to share with me the essential ingredients for a successful marriage. I knew it involved more than cooking and cleaning the house. But beyond that, I ­wasn’t sure where to begin.

The feelings of incompetence only grew stronger as children started to arrive. I became pregnant three months after our wedding. By age twenty-one, I had an infant and a one-year-old. In those first two years of marriage, there were days when I felt my battle with homesickness and morning sickness (more like all-day sickness) would never end. I had no prior experience caring for children, and to say the least, I felt inadequate and unprepared.

WHAT IS GOOD?

Maybe you recognize yourself in Lisa’s story. You find that life is galloping by at a furious pace, and you are frantically trying to catch your breath. You wonder if you are making the right choices.

Or perhaps you identify more with my life. You are a full-time homemaker, but still you are overwhelmed by all your responsibilities. You wish you knew of a better way to carry out this enormous task.

Isn’t it telling that our culture requires training and certification for so many vocations of lesser importance, but hands us marriage and motherhood without instruction? Fortunately, God ­hasn’t left us to fend for ourselves. He has provided invaluable wisdom for women in His Word.

If we question whether we are investing our lives in what is truly important, we have received the plumb line for women straight from holy Scripture. Look at the clear instructions found in the second chapter of Titus, verses 3 to 5:

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

More than any other, this section of Scripture has shaped my own understanding of biblical womanhood. This passage set the standard and provided the direction I so desperately needed in those early years of marriage. And for the past twenty-nine years, these words have guided me in my role as a wife and mother.

Not only has Titus 2 transformed my life, but I’ve seen it revolutionize the lives of countless other women. No matter what your age or season of life—whether you are a grandmother or a high school student—this passage is applicable to you.

In this book we will explore the rich, wonderful counsel that the Lord provides for women in Titus 2. One chapter each will be devoted to “what is good”—loving our husbands, loving our children, self-control, purity, working at home, kindness, and submission in marriage. (Did you raise your eyebrows at the mention of submission? It’s not a popular word today, but stick with me, and you’ll probably be surprised and encouraged by the reason the Lord listed it among “what is good.”)

THE MENTORING MANDATE

The seven feminine virtues listed in Titus 2 are prefaced with a clear call to action for older women: “Teach what is good, and so train the young women.”

I longed for this kind of help and instruction in my early years of marriage and motherhood. I earnestly desired to have a more experienced, godly woman to whom I could go for advice.

My mom was an excellent role model who made caring for a family look effortless. But she was a thousand miles away, and I ­couldn’t contact her on a daily basis. How I wished I had paid closer attention when I lived at home!

As the first among my friends to have a baby, I had no one close by whom I could ask for help. I felt very alone in this daunting task of being a wife and mother.

I remember one unhelpful method (among many) I followed with my first child, Nicole. To keep her from crying, I would nurse (and in later months, bottle-feed) her until she fell asleep. Then I would verycarefully lay her in bed. If she woke up in the process—which happened frequently, I might add—I would have to start the whole operation over again. This ordeal could take up to an hour and a half at every naptime and nightly bedtime. To say the least, it was an exhausting and time-consuming routine.

I continued this faulty practice until my second daughter, Kristin, was born fourteen months later. My mother was visiting to help me with the girls, and she observed my effort to care for a newborn while maintaining this bedtime practice with Nicole. “Carolyn,” she admonished, “you need to put Nicole to bed and just let her cry.”

I was desperate at this point; so without hesitation I followed her counsel. The first night Nicole cried for fifteen minutes. The next day for her nap, she whimpered only a few moments. That night she went to sleep without crying. To think I had spent all those months going through that arduous routine! How much time and effort would have been saved if only I had received the simple, practical advice of an older woman.

Our Titus 2 passage exhorts older women to provide this kind of assistance for young women. If you are an older woman, may I appeal to you to take up this challenge? Young women are in dire need of your training and instruction.

To function in this role you need not have the gift of teaching or be a theological expert; it simply requires you to possess proven character (as outlined in verse 3). The years have brought you much knowledge and insight, and you have a significant role to play in the church. You have discovered secrets of godly wisdom in relation to husbands, children, and the home that could save younger women a lot of unnecessary trouble and concern.

Author and speaker Elisabeth Elliot encourages older women in this way:

It would help younger women to know there are a few listening ears when they don’t know what to do with an uncommunicative husband, a 25-pound turkey, or a two-year-old’s tantrum.

It is doubtful that the Apostle Paul had in mind Bible classes or seminars or books when he spoke of teaching younger women. He meant the simple things, the everyday example, the willingness to take time from one’s own concerns to pray with the anxious mother, to walk with her the way of the cross—with its tremendous demands of patience, selflessness, lovingkindness—and to show her, in the ordinariness of Monday through Saturday, how to keep a quiet heart.

These lessons will come perhaps most convincingly through rocking a baby, doing some mending, cooking a supper, or cleaning a refrigerator. Through such an example, one young woman—single or married, Christian or not—may glimpse the mystery of charity and the glory of womanhood.1

Of all the mentoring relationships among women, none is more significant than the one between a mother and her daughter. Those of us who have been blessed with daughters have the opportunity and, indeed, the obligation to emphasize the feminine qualities of Titus 2 in our teaching repertoire.

We must instruct them how to love their future husbands and how to love their future children, in the likely event that God has that plan for their lives. We must train them how to be self-controlled, pure, kind, workers at home, and submissive.

We live in a society that emphasizes preparation and education for everything but marriage, motherhood, and homemaking. Therefore, we must give this profession our highest attention when it comes to preparing our daughters for their futures.

May I also encourage those of you who are single? If marriage and motherhood are in your future, now is the time to prepare for that profession. Even if you remain single, you can still cultivate biblical femininity by studying this passage. It will instruct you in how to care for the marriages and children of those closest to you. You don’t have to draw from personal experience; you still have the truth of God’s Word to train the younger women in your life.

Clearly, Titus 2 exhorts all women to perceive the value of being mentored and being a mentor. Younger women should consistently pursue more mature women to learn from their wisdom and experience. Older women should prayerfully consider the younger women that God has brought into their lives, in order to encourage and support them.

A MENTORING STORY

It was the friendship and counsel of an older woman that God used to influence my friend Lisa. Though Lisa had been attending church services periodically, she ­didn’t know the truth of the gospel and was only living for herself. However, she encountered God, and He turned her life upside down. He shook loose all her previous concepts of femininity, marriage, and motherhood. She tells her experience:

I grew up at a time when women were making a name for themselves. In their own right, they were being promoted into the “men only” fields without the obstacles or prejudices of the past. Women were prompted to put themselves where they could make their mark. I never heard anyone talk or teach about raising a family or being a wife.

In my family, I was encouraged to pursue my interests, study hard, and have a shining career. I remember in college my friends and I would talk about careers, strategies, and positions of rank. We always pictured ourselves as successful executives. I specifically recall tossing around the idea of not having children.

My path into corporate America was incredibly easy. I had a wonderful job waiting for me out of college. From there the climb was more like a ride in a glass elevator. At the age of twenty-eight, I had my CPA license and found myself the comptroller of a multimillion-dollar corporation and the youngest vice president in company history.

But with success came resentment that I was tied down with a family. I had to decline a promotion and an opportunity to move abroad. I had two young sons, and my husband was in a nowhere job. My family felt like the chains of Jacob Marley. I ­couldn’t see the joy in having a family—only the glory I was missing. I was in a mental trap that I ­didn’t perceive.

Through a series of God-ordained “coincidences,” several people recommended the same church to John and Lisa. One Sunday they decided to visit, and on that day the pastor clearly presented the gospel and preached about the eternal importance of family. The message pierced Lisa’s heart. Drawn by the teaching and life of the church community, they began to attend this new church. Not much later, Lisa repented of her sins and became a Christian.

Soon the conversations at work about vacations, wardrobes, and material success that she once enjoyed seemed silly and selfish. Instead Lisa began to prize the biblical roles of wife and mother. Eventually, John and Lisa agreed it was time to sell their big house, buy a less expensive place to live, and prepare for Lisa to come home full time. It took the better part of a year to sell the house, during which time she turned down a promotion that would have doubled her salary. This ordeal tested her faith.

I struggled even as I tried to obey. I knew my life needed to be in God’s ordained order. But I wondered if I could really do this.

As we prepared to move, I befriended a woman in my church who helped me pack a little every day for a month. During our times together, she would listen patiently and help me in practical ways. She continually quoted Scripture, targeting my doubts. It ­wasn’t always what I wanted to hear. Nevertheless, it was always what I needed to hear.