Helping hands

Since I took the summer off from blogging, I thought I would recap a few moments that made my summer what it was.....a summer of growth.

One particular moment that was rather inspiring was the chance to be a speaker and facilitator at an all-day event at Eagle Tech Academy, a high school in Columbia City. The day was structured for girls where they traveled to six different workshops and learned valuable life skills. My particular workshop was on emotional and stress management.

I laughed at the selection of this workshop because I do consider myself an expert on the subject, but only because I know how NOT to manage your stress and emotions. Mistakes and life lessons have taught me.... and now I can share how I did it wrong and encourage others how to do it right.

Part of the workshop was spent naming things in life that cause stress or emotional distress. Group after group of high school girls names off very similar things such as:

financial pressure
divorce and break ups
relationships
illness
loss
disappointments
failures
over committed and taking on too much

It occurred to me as we wrote the list on the board that many of these things still are hurdles for us as adults. I remember turning from the board to face the group of girls and telling them that most of this stuff still happens after high school....life doesn't get easier with age.

That revelation lead me to recognize how important it is to offer wisdom, advice and help to this younger generation. The attitude that kids these days can't be taught is a farce. They are desperately looking for adults to invest in them.

Regardless of what the perceived attitude is, the Bible encourages us to be helping hands to younger girls. The book of Titus says to older women:

^"Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, ⁵ to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

The particular lessons taught at Eagle Tech that day may not have been in the list found in Titus, but the sentiment is the same. Us older, and sometimes wiser, women have been tasked with the opportunity to become encouragers, helpers, and leaders for the younger generation.

Look around your own circle.... what teenage or young woman might be in your path that could benefit from your knowledge, your mentoring, your teaching? There's a Titus-type task waiting for you if you look. And the rewards are equal on both sides.