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Older teaching the younger: Titus 2:4-5 in action
by LeAnn Trimmer, Captain –
At the close of a full week of Girl Guard and Sunbeam Camp, Girl Guards at Sierra del Mar’s divisional camp made their way up the hill to the Vista Lodge to find a surprise awaiting them: Instead of the usual food line and picnic tables, they found tables set and decorated in their honor, complete with flowers and candlelight. There to greet them were women officers and women’s ministries leaders from around the division who had come to join in celebrating them and the women God is making them to be.
As everyone took their seats around the tables it gave opportunity for conversation: about the girls’ week, about school, about their future dreams and aspirations. As dinner wound down, Captain Nancy Ball shared with the Girl Guards the purpose for the gathering.
Over the last two years, the division’s Women’s Ministries department has made a concerted effort to build bridges between the generations. There have been steps taken to include these young women in the annual Women’s Ministries camp and to work to nurture inter-generational communication and relationships. This banquet was the next logical step to foster those relationships. In Paul’s letter to Titus, he instructs that the older women are to teach the younger the ways of godliness—but there is much that we older women can learn from these younger women as well.
Once everyone’s plates were cleared we commenced with making a memory. Captain Nancy Ball had been making her way around camp all week taking pictures of all the Girl Guards going about their business—cleaning cabins, eating, working on their badges. The girls all went to work making scrapbooks filled with pictures of their week and having friends, new and old, write messages.
Our modern world has separated and divided families. The norm used to be that multiple generations would grow up under one roof or at least close by, with those generations teaching and learning from each other, with the generations helping and supporting each other, just over the natural course of the day. The church has a unique opportunity to fill that void and become a voice of wisdom and the light of God to the next generation. The women of the Sierra del Mar Division are taking steps to be that voice and share that light.