To the Angel in the House
Someone once described the home as "a place apart, a walled garden, in which certain virtues so easily crushed by modern life could be preserved" and the mother in this home as "the Angel in the House." Mothers play a critical role in the shaping of our character and in the passing on of virtue.
When the former Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse Mikhail Gorbachev made the following remarkable observation about the soviet society. "We have discovered that many of our problems - in children's and young people's behavior, in our morals, culture and in production - are partially caused by the weakening of family ties and a slack attitude to family responsibilities. This is a paradoxical result of our sincere desire to make women equal with men in everything." He added that Russia was now looking for ways to make it possible for women to return "to their purely woman mission."
Is a there a divine ordering of the family in which mothers play the critical role of building into children values and a worldview, morals and manners that ultimately shape the culture?
This Sunday, May 8, is Mother's Day and so in preparation for that let me encourage you to study Titus 2:3-5 and ponder the role of mothers in God's ordering of the family and culture.
Read Titus 2:3-5 and as usual, reflect on the questions below to help you meditate on God's Word.
- To get a sense of the context, read through Titus 1.
- What is Paul's understanding of his calling and what is his concern? (1:1)
- Why did Paul leave Titus in Crete? (1:5)
- What was going on in Crete that Titus needed to address? (1:10-16)
- Titus is charged with the responsibility of teaching "what accords with sound doctrine" (2:1). Read verses 2-10 of chapter two. In summary, what does Paul mean by "what accords with sound doctrine"?
- What is Titus to teach older men and younger men? (2:2, 6)
- What is he supposed to teach slaves? (2:9-10)
- What accords with sound doctrine as far as the character of older women is concerned? (2:3)
- What are older women supposed to teach younger women? (2:3-5) 
- What is the primary focus of the training of the young women? What is the primary domain of wives and mothers?
- Is it fair to assume that older women were model what they were called upon to teach the younger women? If so, how would that expand question 5 above?
- "Working at home" is a hot button issue, isn't it? What do you think about this? Is this an application bound to the first century Mediterranean culture and not relevant to us today, or is it a universally relevant application of sound doctrine and a reflection of divine order? What think ye?
- In what ways was your mother or grandmother instrumental in shaping your morals, manners and worldview? How did God use them in bringing you to faith in Christ?
- Did you have an angel in the house growing up? Can you thank God for your mother and grandmother? And thank them if you can.
God be with you and see you Sunday!
 Did you notice that Titus was not instructed to teach the younger women? Why do you think that is?