My Titus 2 Friend

” You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine… Teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can teach the younger women…” Titus 2:1, 3-4

I don’t know if you’ve ever had someone in your life who was a spiritual mentor to you. I hope you have been so blessed. I have, and I don’t take it for granted because I know not everyone has that opportunity. In fact I have had several women who have invested themselves in me, and they have each brought something different to my life that I otherwise would not have known or experienced. One of my favorites is my friend Carol Anne.

Carol Anne is not much older than me, only a couple of years, in fact. But for five years, she gathered with a small group of our friends and taught us… well, it’s hard to put on paper (or a computer screen, as it were) just how much she taught us about God, His character, His word, His will, how to love Him, how to be in His presence, the benefits that are ours as His children. Every Monday night at 7:00 our friend Melinda’s living room became holy ground. It became a sanctuary where we met God face to face. We laid it all before Him and let Him wash us with His word. We learned how to humble ourselves before Him. We learned how to be quiet and listen to Him. We learned how to search out His will in scripture. We learned how to use His word as the Sword of our spirits. We learned how to approach His throne of grace with confidence and boldness. And Carol Anne faithfully led us there.

She would tell you that she didn’t teach us as much as she learned along with us. Any maybe that has some truth to it. But I do know that every Monday night for five years we would all set aside “real life” to spend time with her as she spent time with Him. She faithfully prepared our lessons, spending who-knows-how-long searching the scriptures and praying about what she would share with us. We were not always the most attentive students. Often times we laughed and talked and chased rabbits so much that she had to wrangle us back. That makes me love her even more because I know she wanted to get finished and go home, but she was so patient with us.

I am so much richer for having had this season of my life. My Monday girls are forever ingrained on my heart. Their burdens are my burdens and their joys are my joys. We have been through the extremes of life together. I have stood outside their hospital door with my ear to the door listening as their babies were born. They have brought food and gone to funerals when grandparents died. We have prayed for healing for our children’s various medical issues. We have gone to battle for each other’s marriages, families, careers, dreams and goals. When our friend Enley got tickets to Oprah and flew off to Chicago, we even prayed that it would be “Oprah’s Favorite Things.” And do I even have to tell you that she called me after the taping and said, “Ashley, the favor of the Lord is on me. I was just on Oprah’s favorite Things”. I am not creative enought to make up the ways God answered those prayers during that time. He was just so good to us.

And He still is. He is still hearing and answering our prayers today. One of the most pressing matters for me is that my beloved Carol Anne has been sick. Really sick. She’s no stranger to sickness, for she has lived with MS since she was sixteen years old. But this time is different. She has something that has so far gone undiagnosed. Her doctors believe that it has something to do with her endocrine system. Because God loves her more than I do, He has given her the best this world has to offer. She flies out this weekend to California to see the world’s front-running endocrinologist in the disease which he believes she has. How good is He to her?!? Of course, we have known all along that she is under the care of the Great Physician and that earthly physicians, as talented as they are, are merely vessels for the work He wants to do in her.

Would you join me in praying for my friend? She is facing a trip across the country, new doctors, new tests, new medicines, an unknown diagnosis, possible surgery, additional expenses, and time away from her precious family. And I want her to get better. I’m selfish like that. I still have a lot to learn.