The Titus Woman

Titus 2:3-5

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

I have been blessed by what I refer to as a "Titus Woman". The Lord has provided me with many godly family members, all of whom have impacted my walk with Christ. There is, however one Titus Woman who has left her mark not only on my heart, but anyone who has come to know and love, my dear, Great Aunt Katie.

Aunt Katie is my grandfather's older sister, who will likely be leaving this earth soon. It's okay though. She's ready. I've never understood how someone can be ready to die. Ready to leave this earth, full of those we know and love, a place of comfort, being among the living. But Aunt Katie doesn't see it like that. In her 87 years of life she's come to understand the Lord's calling for her life and the sin that so encapsulates those that love this world. She's ready to meet her maker.

Aunt Katie is one of the godliest people I know I will ever have the pleasure of knowingon this side of Heave. There is not one conversation I have ever had with her that is not surrounded around her prasing the Lord and speaking of His goodness. To this day, she has praised Him daily, even as her health quickly deterioates and she is daily suffering from evil sickness. Yet, her words constantly praise His Holy name. Infection has caused her to lose sight of one eye. Yet, not a day goes by that she is not solely devoted to reading and studying the word of God. Cancer has overcome her mouth, making it nearly impossible to speak. However, one thing is clear in everything she says. Her hands raised, she praises His name.

I spoke with Aunt Katie 2-3 times a week during my pregnancy with Owen. To say she was a prayer warrior for me is putting it lightly. She was a constant source of strength on some of my weariest days. I will never forget one of her phone calls, in which she was so excited to share the verses from her devotional that were chosen for Owen's due date:

Psalm 27:14
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord.

Jeremiah 17:14
Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.

I was blessed beyond measure this past weekend when my family made a trip to visit Aunt Katie. Unfortunately it had been years since I had visited with her in person, and although I would prefer to remember the image of a spunky, sweet lady, bopping around her kitchen, I was greeted with a very frail, very sick and dying woman. This was likely my family's final "goodbye to Aunt Katie, but it was laced with a very special "hello" as well. It was in this visit that Aunt Katie would finally meet Owen, and see the goodness of the Lord through the healing she and many others have been praying for my sweet boy.

It would be impossible for me to describe the emotions filling the moment she first saw Owen."Praise God, Praise God!" It was a moment in which the goodness of the Lord was clearly revealed and a moment that Aunt Katie has so been longing for.

It's hard for me to understand how Aunt Katie continues to live each day, in the Spirit of the Lord, with never, ever a word of complaint, only praises to her King. When asked how she is doing it's always the same response: "I'm doin good...I'm just blessed."
Somehow she is blessed as she suffers day in and out and as her body slowly prepares to leave this world. She has fuflilied a life full of grace and has left her mark on this world. I am blessed in knowing this amazing woman, a true Titus Woman. She has passed down her knowledge and love for the Lord and in her elderly years, and has helped to grow and nourish the youger women of our family, just as we are called to do.

He giveth more grace when the burden grow greater, He sendeth more strength when the labors increase: to added affliction He addeth HIs mercies, to multiplied trials HIs multiplied peace, when we have exhauseted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed ere the day is half done, when we reach the end of our hoarded resources. Our Father's full giving is only begun. His love has no limit, His grace has no measure, His power no boundary known unto men; For out of His infinite riches in Jesus. He giveth, and giveth and giveth.