My dear daughter Tina,
While I have the opportunity, I would like to summarize the values and life lessons I’ve attempted to live out before you and most want to pass on to you.
Your relationship with Jesus must be the most important thing in your life. Ask him to help you fall deeply, deeply in love with him. Spend time with him every day, prayerfully reading and meditating on his word. When you pray, do so with a listening heart, asking the Holy Spirit to show you who to pray for, how to pray for them, and what instruction and conviction he wants to reveal to you. Learn to confess sin promptly so you don’t develop a callous conscience.
Your relationship with your family is next. Love and honor your husband as the representative of Christ’s headship in your home. Pray faithfully for him and for the children God may give you. Thank God for your husband’s leadership, and as God gives you opportunities for ministry, seek your husband’s wisdom and guidance as well as God’s. After all, you are partners together in the life God gives you.
The ministry God gives you is third. See it as a calling, a ministry, not just a job to be done because no one else will do it. What gifts has God given you? Discover them and don’t be afraid to use them. God is your adequacy and strength when you feel inadequate and weak – rely on him and not on yourself. But be yourself. Don’t try to copy anyone else. You are God’s unique creation, made in his image. No one else has your gifts, your personality, your life experiences that God has tailored for the special works he has planned for you to do. Rejoice in who you are as his daughter.
Regarding your ministry, keep it solidly grounded in God’s truth. Hold it in open hands, not being a controller but letting God direct even when you don’t understand. Listen to the wisdom of other godly people and be willing to learn from them. Bring around you others who have giftings that make up for what you lack. Serve the people in your circle with deep compassionate love.
Keep yourself pure; live a life that’s holy in your attitudes, your lifestyle, your dress as a godly woman, and your love for people. Be faithful: don’t give up when the going gets tough or people are difficult. God will give you grace and strength to hang in there.
Invest yourself in another woman. Let her see how you live – be willing to be vulnerable before her. Ask God to help you live an authentic faith before her. Encourage her to love Jesus, encourage her to use her gifts, then release her to use them in the way God leads her.
One final word: pay close attention to your physical, mental and emotional health. Being unhealthy in any of these areas is poor stewardship of God’s gift of life and will affect your spiritual health.
My daughter, I pray for you and thank God for you. May he use you in your generation to equip other women who will equip other women.
With my love and prayers,
Janet Minnix