I remember when I first began to study the Bible as an adult.  "If only this book had some sort of checklist that I could go by," I thought. "What is the job description for a Godly wife and mother? " In the intervening years since then, I have learned a little more about Bible study than looking for checklists [:)], but how gracious of God to have not just one but several in there for a newbie like me to grasp! Titus 2:3-5 became a blueprint for my growth as a Christian woman.

"The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the younger women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. "

That's quite a to-do list!  There are serious consequences for disobeying these commands as well---disobedience would blaspheme God's word!  I used to struggle with these verses because I thought they trampled my freedom as an individual. Ideas that I had learned in school and from culture told me that this teaching for women  was a repressive, throw-back lifestyle based in patriarchal prejudices from way back when [blah, blah, blah....] Talk about being on a slippery slope! [Psalm 73:2]

But God in His wisdom and love has established boundaries and hedges for his daughters [Psalm 73:24]. I have found satisfaction, fulfillment, peace, contentment, work, ministry, and joy in following these simple verses.  I have found that if the Son makes me free, then I am free indeed. [John 8:36] My freedom isn't a pass to live my life any old way, but freedom to live in the way in which I was designed by my creator and saviour.

Romans 6:11-13 puts it this way, "Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."

Yielding to God means agreeing with His plan for my life. If God is good, and He loves me, then His plan [from Titus 2:3-5] must be good, too.  We know God is good and that He is love, so I choose to follow His plan, even though it goes against popular notions and current trends.  I have trusted Him with my eternal soul, and I can trust Him with my daily life! I can say with the Psalmist,

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. Ps. 68:19