Regina 
Sometimes what you need is to sit in a circle with a whole bunch of women worn to varying degrees by time, some with lines worn deep from smiling at a whole hand full of decades, others gently growing into beauty at the dawn of life, some in the between nursing babies, rising at midnight, trying to figure out how to put one foot in front of the other with an army of kids hanging from all 4 limbs (smile), slowly figuring out that what we need is to sit in more circles filled with women who can do the Titus 2 thing with us and us with them. We’ve all wanted a mentor and we all can be one even if the fact hasn’t occurred to us yet. We’re all sort of hungry, sort of starved for a generation to declare God’s mighty acts to us, to remind us that the Lord has done great things for us too. And yes, He is worthy of praise. When our days inevitably move from security to uncertainty, we need a slew of women to remind us that God never ever changes. He is our surety in every storm and our surety in every still calm day.
I sat in wide-eyed wonder looking at their enchanting faces, young women circled up testifying of God’s goodness. Sat next to a true beauty in the faith, perfectly named JOY, the master-mind that thought we can raise up Esther Women, yeah, really a whole army of girls who realize and actually believe that Christ Jesus is all and in all….in every facet of life and in every facet of them. That’s a real miracle. Young women who fiercely reject the lies of culture and embrace the life of God. Prayer, purity, passion for Christ, preoccupied with seeing others come to love Jesus….the focus of their lives? The almost college students, the young wife & mom, and our leaders, the women of the faith who are going before us, with hearts beating for Jesus.
And aren’t we all longing for them to come alongside of us? Aren’t we all longing for a Tami Pate to stop by our house on a random Thursday afternoon to give our little girl a birthday gift, to talk your ear off for a few minutes with life-giving encouragement that a young mommy needs? Don’t we need the Tamis and Joys of the world to multiply? And shouldn’t you become one? Maybe then our joy would multiply?
We would all be so much better if we thought of ourselves less and served others more. Don’t take a thought like this and pine away for a drop-by date with a beloved mentor, seek one out if you can, yes, but become one anyway. We’re all too anxious, too hurried, too tired out, too empty….but we might be filled if we learned the ironic truth that pouring out in a real sense is filling up.
We’re filling up with the Word of Christ, letting it make its home in our hearts, and we’re filling up with lives…leading many to righteousness, asking God with all our might to not forsake us until we declare your strength to the next generation, your power to all who are to come (Daniel & Psalm 71).
We are the Esthers, the Daniels, the people of God in our time, and in the words of Tolkien if we don’t find a way, no one will. We are the women in that circle. The generations beholding each other, seeing they need each other, and if we don’t find a way to be together, a way to circle around each other, no one will. And one thing’s for sure, this life, it’s hard, and we cannot do it alone.
