Discouraging Younger Women

To Older Women…
 
It’s very easy for older women to make remarks or comments to or in front of younger women that are discouraging.  We ought to be very careful about this, for we are to instruct the younger women, not destruct them.  Oftentimes many of these comments are “off the cuff” remarks and aren’t given much thought by those saying or writing them, but can burn down into the innermost parts of a young woman’s impressionable mind.

Disparaging remarks by older women about children are a big discouragement. Perhaps a woman comes to church and is overheard telling someone that she is with child for the fourth time.  An older woman chimes in or says to someone else something along the lines of “Doesn’t she know what birth control’s for?”  Or the disparaging isn’t verbal, but is in one’s expression: a roll of the eyes, a mouth that purses and a head shake, a frown.  God hates a proud and haughty look as much as He hates arrogance; this type of reaction is wrong as it is hurtful and hateful.  Children are a gift from God, all children, and regardless of what we may personally think about a child’s mother, earthly father, or family, we must remember that each human born is another chance for all of us to hope – this child is a gift and a human being worthy of love and worthy to be valued as much as anyone else.  The same God we serve created him or her, and the same Christ we believe in lived and died for this child, too. (Read more)