Mothers, Sisters, and Daughters in Christ

Dannah Gresh: Titus 2 invites you to train up the next generation. Does that feel a little daunting? Here’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth with a perspective shift.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: You see, it’s not some great big complicated formal thing—this discipleship, this life-to-life engagement. It’s women coming together to adorn the beauty of the gospel as they do life together.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Adorned for March 2, 2026. I’m Dannah Gresh.

If you’re walking through the 2026 Bible review plan with us, today we’re reading Deuteronomy 31 and 32. When you hear the term “spiritual family,” do any women come to mind? Today and tomorrow Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is inviting you to find mothers, sisters, and daughters in Christ.

Nancy gave this message a few years back to the women at a marriage conference sponsored by FamilyLife. If you hear her mentioning a tropical island, that’s because this conference took place on the Love Like You Mean It Cruise. Here’s Part 1 of Nancy’s message, The Beauty of Living Out the Gospel as a Woman.

Nancy: I want to just talk about our wedding for a few more minutes. While I’m doing that, if you have a Bible with you, would you be finding the book of Titus? I’m giving you a little advance notice, because it’s a tiny little book toward the end of the New Testament.

Titus chapter 2, we’re going to talk about that. Let me just set it up by telling you about three types of women who participated in our wedding. The first is an older woman, I think she was eighty-eight at the time. Her name is Vonette Bright.

She and her husband Bill were the co-founders of Cru. I’ve never had a time in my life when Vonette wasn‘t there. She’s been a part of our family, part of my life for all my life, and she was like a second mother to me. 

When she heard that Robert was in my life and that I was dating and then engaged and then getting married, she was giddy! She would call me . . . and she was not in good health the last couple years of her life. She would call me, and she would just be giggling. She was so excited at what had come to pass! 

She was kind of home bound; she had a lot of physical challenges. But she was saying, “Can I host a reception for you? I’ll do it in my condo!” She just wanted to be a part of this! Well, she lived in Orlando, Florida, and we were getting married in Wheaton, Illinois. She was determined, if it was the last thing she did, she was going to be at our wedding! She was at our wedding, and it was almost the last thing she did.

She showed up there with her son and a caregiver, in a wheelchair, her bright red outfit on for our wedding. The Lord knew that six or seven weeks later she would be in heaven. We actually got to spend a week together with her after our honeymoon as she was just in her final weeks of life.

But in the bride’s room just before the wedding was getting ready to start, somebody sent a message to me saying, “Vonette would like to talk with you. She asked if she could see you for just a few moments.”

So she was wheeled into the room and she said, “Could I just speak with you privately for a few moments?” And then she said, “Honey, I’m a momma. I want to just ask you, is there anything you would like to ask a momma before you get married?” (laughter) It was precious!

And here we were, she was in her wheelchair, I was sitting next to her, and after this picture was taken we shoo-ed the photographer out and had a sweet few-minute conversation. I don’t suppose you’re interested in what she said after that, but if you are, you can pick up a copy of my book Adorned: Living Out the Beauty of the Gospel Together. I talk about that conversation, that precious conversation, that Vonette and I had together. She was for many years, all those years, an older woman in my life.

She had encouraged me. She had prayed for me. She had assignments for my life and what she thought. When she couldn’t keep being active anymore, she thought I should just take the baton and do the things that she was able to do when she was younger. She was a spiritual mother in my life.

Now, there was another group of women who participated in our wedding, and they were young women. We didn’t have attendants, because, at our age, who are you going to ask to be your attendants? You have too many friends, right?

So these were children and grandchildren of some of my closest friends. And instead of having attendants, these ten little girls–all just dressed up so beautifully–went down the aisle ahead of me ringing bells! These are some of the younger women in my life.

A few of these are three sibling sets in this group, a couple of them just live walking distance from my house. They’ll show up on their bikes and bring me something their mom has made for us or some flowers (not right now, because it’s winter in Michigan!).

But these are precious young women. They don’t understand all this gospel stuff fully yet. (Who understands it fully?) But I’m very conscious that I have a role as a spiritual mother in their lives! 

As Vonette passed the baton of faith and confidence in the Lord and joy in the Lord to me; as she modeled to me the beauty of a life lived coram Deo [from Latin]—in the face of God, in the presence of God—now I have the opportunity of doing that for some young women like these little girls.

So, these are spiritual daughters. We need spiritual mothers in our lives, and we need spiritual daughters. And then there was one other group of women who participated in our wedding. I call them the “Sisterhood.” We call each other the “Sisterhood.”

There are eight of us in total. We have known each other for years. We came into each others’ lives in different ways. We live all over the country: one in Canada, and one of the sisterhood is here with us today; I’m so thankful for my sweet friend Mary Ann!

In fact, we were in the Dominican Republic for a day there this week. I was in the D.R. after a conference we had done with a number of these women when I first told them about Robert. And thus followed “the inquisition!” “Who is this man!? And what in the world are his intentions!!??”

You’ll have to hear Robert tell the story about how we were spending a week in a home in the D.R. and Robert was in Orlando. This was at just the very beginning of our relationship, our friendship, and these women wanted to talk to Robert!

We did a Skype call. Robert was on this huge screen in one of the gathering rooms, living rooms in this home. And for ninety minutes these women asked him questions!! I was sitting in the back row just holding my breath, not saying anything!

But these women were such encouragers as they got to know Robert and sensed what God was doing in our lives. And when it came to the wedding, oh my goodness! These women were all about making that weekend really, really special for us . . . in so many ways!

We had a ton of fun! When we got to our room after the wedding, these women had left the reception early, had made their way over to the room and had decorated it. There were a zillion rose petals everywhere. There were enough candles to be a monastery somewhere! I mean, I’m sure it was against the fire code regulations.

But they so invested in that special occasion for me! They celebrated it. Some of them single, some married. We had done life together at a distance. We all wished we lived closer to each other, but we call, we pray with each other, we have a text thread that we exchange over the years. 

Every one of us in that group at times over the years has had times that we really needed the support of other women, the encouragement, the accountability—times when we were struggling with temptation or testing or trials or financial difficulties.

One of the women in the Sisterhood right now, her husband is havinghorrific physical challenges. This Sisterhood just gathers and bands together, and we pray for each other, and we lift each other up. 

And I’ll tell you, Robert loves the Sisterhood because he knows how invested they are in making sure that we do well, that we are encouraged. I do it for them, and they do it for me. 

So, we need spiritual mothers in our lives. Think for a moment, who is a spiritual mother in your life? We need spiritual daughters in our lives. Can you think of any young women, teenagers, younger women in their twenties, women younger than yourself, maybe some little girls, women that you’re investing in spiritually. As you have received, you’re giving to them. And then, do you have some spiritual sisters in your life?

Now, I’ll be the first to say that when I share this, I think it’s easy for people to think, Oh, what I wouldn’t give to be able to have that! Maybe you’re in a vocation right now or a season of life where you don't feel like that’s all in place. Well, let me just remind you that there are seasons of life.

God has different kinds of relationships, and He knows what you need in each season of your life. Rather than moping or whining or becoming resentful because you don’t have what you wish you had . . . Maybe you wish you had some sisterhood women to hold you up in a difficult marriage season or with a prodigal child that you’re burdened about. Ask God to bring what He knows you need into your life when He knows you need it! It will look different at different seasons.

I was single for fifty-seven years. My needs spiritually and relationally were different than they are right now. But generally, as you look over the course of your life, ask God to bring spiritual mothers, spiritual daughters, and spiritual sisters into your life. And even more important than that, ask the Lord to make you a spiritual mother in someone else’s life, to make you a good spiritual daughter in someone else’s life, and to make you a spiritual sister. Don’t wait for everybody else to initiate this!

This book, Adorned: Living Out the Beauty of the Gospel Together, is a three hundred page book on three verses that we’re going to look at in just a moment from Titus chapter 2. As I’ve taught on this subject and carried this subjecton my heart over the last ten or more years, I’ve found younger women often say, “But Nancy, the older women aren’t available! They’re too busy. They’re not there. They’re not interested in investing in us younger women.” 

And do you know what the older women say to me? “Nancy, the younger women aren’t interested in anybody investing in them. They’re too busy! They know everything! They have their own friends, they don’t care about an older woman investing in their life.”

I want to say to both groups, “You guys get in the same room. Put your heads together, put your hearts together, get on your knees together. Don’t wait for that other older or younger woman to initiate friendship and encouragement with you. You take the first step!”

How many of you would consider yourself (you’d be honest enough to say), “I would consider myself an older woman.” Okay, that should be pretty much everybody, because everybody is an older woman to somebody! (laughter)

How many of you say you still consider yourselves younger women? Okay, there are quite a few here who consider they are younger women. In fact, when I started writing this book, I would have considered myself a younger woman, and I was single. By the time I finished writing this book, I was definitely in the older woman category, and I was married. 

So seasons changed; the book changed as a result. For example the chapter on loving your husband (we’re going to look at this passage in Titus 2), I finished in our first year of marriage. Let me just say, that chapter on loving your husband sounds a lot different than it would have, had I written it when I was single. 

The opening line of that chapter is, “What in the world have I done?!” (laughter) A line that crossed my head not even weeks into our marriage! It’s been in your head too, at times—maybe weeks or months or years into your marriage. 

So take the initiative, whatever season of life you’re in. If you’re a younger woman needing an older woman in your life, ask God to point you to her. She doesn’t have to be a seminary graduate or a theologian or some great wise woman. Maybe she’s just a really ordinary woman, but she’s been through some life seasons you haven’t yet. 

Just go. Don’t say to her, “Would you disciple me every week?” That’s going to be daunting to her, and she’s going to say, “I don’t feel qualified to do that!” But if you say, “I just need someone to pray with me. I’m walking through something right now, and could we get together over coffee, and could I just share with you what’s happening in my life,and ask if you’d pray for me? I’m walking through something right now. Could we get together over coffee, and can I just share with you what’s happening in my life and ask if you’d pray for me?”

Older women, don’t wait for those younger women to come to you. You ask the Lord to point out who He has put in your path, who could just use some encouragement, who could use some prayer. Say, “I’ve been noticing you’ve got these three kids, aged six and under. Boy, I remember what that season was like. It was so busy! I had my hands so full. I didn’t think I was going to survive it. How are you doing?”

Just let her know she’s going to make it and that you’re praying for her. See, it’s not some great big, complicated, formal thing, this discipleship, this life-to-life engagement. It’s women coming together to adorn the beauty of the gospel as they do life together.

So let’s look together at a passage, Titus, chapter 2. It has become such a beautiful passage in the fabric of my life. I’m just going to touch on some high points of it and encourage you then to dive into it and to find more in it than we can possibly do in these moments.

I have found in this passage just a new paradigm for doing life as a woman. We all need this, and it looks different in different seasons of our lives. 

It will help your marriage . . .
It will help your parenting . . .
It will help you in the workplace . . .
It will help you in your church involvement . . .
It will help you in your personal issues and struggles, your growth in Christ, your discipleship . . . to have other women, spiritual mothers, spiritual daughters, and spiritual sisters in your life.

Now, just to give you a little bit of context here, the book of Titus was not written by Titus. It was written by the apostle Paul to a pastor named Titus. Titus was the pastor of this fledgling little church on the Isle of Cyprus.

In fact, as we were—do you park a boat? What do you do? You dock a boat, whatever we were yesterday. As we were looking at that beautiful ocean, the island scenery (we didn’t have a chance to get off the boat), but just looking at that beauty, I’m thinking maybe Cyprus looks a little bit like this. 

And this young church was really under attack. This was in the age of Nero, the Roman Empire. The Romans and Nero were determined to stamp out Christianity. There were all kinds of attacks externally on these young believers, but there were also attacks from within. There were false teachers already who were messing with people’s minds and lives. It says they were upsetting whole families by their teaching.

And so these little churches, these young believers, were wondering, How in the world are we going to survive as a church, much less thrive in our faith, much less reach the whole world with the gospel of Jesus Christ? and so on.

Chapter 1, Paul says the first important thing that these little churches should have is biblically qualified leaders, and he goes into that whole explanation.

Then in chapter 2, he says the gospel needs to be lived out in each demographic—younger, older, men, women, different socioeconomic status. He unpacks a bit of what it looks like for each of these demographics to live out the gospel of Christ.

So let me read the first paragraph of Titus chapter 2. He says, “But as for you, Titus, in this very confused, messed-up culture where these just these few little new churches are struggling to keep their heads above water, what are you supposed to do?” He says: 

As for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. (v. 1)

Now, I don’t know about you—when I hear that, if you stop and think about it, you think that is not any kind of dazzling strategy. This is how our churches are going to grow? This is how we’re going to do ministry? We’re going to do doctrine. I mean, how boring could that be?

But Paul says doctrine—what you believe—is really, really important, because what you believe about God and about this world impacts how you do all of life. So he says, “Teach sound doctrine, and then teach people what it means to live out sound doctrine.”

So he speaks to the older men in verse 2. “Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled” (v. 2). Sound—that word “sound,” again, it’s the word in Greek from which we get our word “hygiene” or “hygienic.” It’s clean doctrine. It’s healthy doctrine. 

Some of you in this room are germaphobes. You’re more concerned about what’s on the counter, germs that might touch you, than maybe you are about the kind of teaching that you pay attention to, the kind of books you read, the kind of doctrine you take in.

He says, “You want sound doctrine.” And then these older men are to be “sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness” (v. 2).

And then verse 3, he speaks to the older women, and he’s going to say two things, essentially, to these older women. First of all, what they are to be, and then secondly, what they are to do. The first is they are to be a model to the other believers, particularly the younger women. “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior.”

That word “reverent” means just living a life that is a holy life, a life that takes into consideration the presence of God 24/7. We think reverent, and we think, “Oh, you never talk above this tone,” just kind of like walking through a cathedral and you never raise your voice, like being in the library in the old days. No. Reverent is living a life that is always remembering that God is here. So how we talk, how we act, what we watch, what we do—we’re always remembering that we’re doing it in God’s presence.

 

And what are the expressions of that—to be reverent in behavior? He gives two examples. One is about their tongues. They are not to be slanderers. They are not to use their tongues to tear down others, but to build others up, starting within their own homes.

Some of you have watched the movie Like Arrows. Wasn’t that a precious story, a powerful story? But before that husband and wife began to live as in the presence of God, there were all kinds of things being said and done in their homes that were destructive rather than building up.

So he says, “Older women, don’t be slanderers. Don’t tear down with your tongues.” And then, “Don’t be slaves to much wine” (v. 3). He’s saying you don’t want to be under the control of any influence other than the Holy Spirit, the lordship of Jesus Christ. He’s speaking here of addictions, of things that would control us that are not healthy, not wholesome. He said, “Not slaves to much wine.”

Now, we can be slaves to lots of things, and I think wine is just one. You say, “He needed to write that to older women? What were these older women doing in the church? You know, they’re all getting soused, or what?” Well, I don’t know, but he apparently knew this was an issue in the church.

I can’t speak for back then, but I know it’s an issue in the church today—older women in bondage to all kinds of substances and controlling things in their lives, idols, rather than being just slaves to Jesus Christ.

So this is what older women are to be: a model, reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to much wine. But then there’s something they’re supposed to do; this is their calling.

A lot of my peers right now are in the empty nest stage. I’ve talked with a lot of these women who are trying to decide, like, “What am I supposed to be doing?” Well, let me tell you, here’s one thing you’re supposed to be doing as you get into that season of life. He says they are to “teach what is good, and so train the young women” (vv. 3–4).

God has a calling for you. And younger women, by the way, don’t think you don’t need to be paying attention to this, because you need to be paying attention to the older women’s instructions. That’s what you’re supposed to be aspiring to—to be an older woman who will be an example, a model of godliness, and who will be able to pass on to the next generation what God has taught you, not just out of your successes, but out of your failures as well.

You say, “I’m not a teacher like you.” When you see you’re supposed to teach young women and train them, you think of somebody getting up and doing what I’m doing. You say, “I could never do that.” This passage is not saying that’s what you need to do.

 

I’m up here teaching—that’s one way to teach. But most teaching in the body of Christ takes place life to life, heart to heart, person to person. It’s not you sitting down with a group of twenty or two hundred or two thousand women and getting notes and your Bible out and a stand and a microphone. No. It’s just in conversation, it’s informal, it’s everyday, it’s a way of life. And, we’re going to see that in this passage.

Dannah: That’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, inviting women to live out Titus 2 in their everyday lives. Turns out training up the next generation of godly women isn’t as daunting as it sounds. It’s beautifully ordinary, which is why God commands all of us to live it out. That’s right—you can do Titus 2!

To help you along the way, we’d love for you to read Nancy’s booklet, A Deeper Kind of Kindness. It’s an excerpt from her larger book, Adorned, which is actually what today’s message was based off of! In this resource, you’ll find biblical teaching and one hundred practical expressions of kindness, equipping you to reflect the beauty of the gospel in all your Titus 2 relationships. 

This resource is yours for a gift of any amount to Revive Our Hearts. To donate, visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959. Be sure to request A Deeper Kind of Kindness when you do!

For more wisdom on relationships of all kinds, visit ReviveOurHearts.com/relationships. We’ve got a collection of free resources for you there. Find podcast episodes, videos, articles, and challenges designed to help you love well in various contexts. Whether it’s friendship, motherhood, marriage—really any relationship—we’re here to help you thrive in Christ. 

Tomorrow, we’ll listen to part two of today’s message. Nancy’s going to unpack Titus 2 even more, and she’ll help you develop a vision for what this passage could mean in your own life. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV.
 

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