Elisabeth Elliot: Everything in my life I want to be an offering to Jesus Christ. It's not difficult to make the writing of a book or the acceptance of a speaking engagement or the preparation of a radio program to be an offering to Jesus Christ. That is not very hard. It is simple. It is not easy, but it is simple.

Lisa Barry: For the last two weeks we have been on the road with Elisabeth Elliot in Omaha, Nebraska, where she has been addressing a large group of women at a radio event. Today we return to hear a few questions that the audience has written down in advance. Is there a question you would like to ask Elisabeth? Why not grab a piece of paper and pen right now and jot down your question while you listen.

So, while you get comfortable, we are going to get started with this Thursday edition of Gateway To Joy. Then in a few minutes, I'll be back to tell you how you can get a copy of this series for yourself.

Elisabeth Elliot: My friend lost her mother four days after her first child was born. If you could just offer her some comforting words, she's having a hard time.

Hard times are suffering. Suffering is suffering. I would give you 2 Corinthians 4:17-18. Those were the words that most comforted me when my first husband died.

NIV, New International Version.

There are lots of good ones and I often quote from other versions from memory so I'm not always sure I'm quoting from NIV. It just happens to be the one I'm reading now. I strongly recommend J. B. Phillips' translation of the New Testament. I love that. And New English Bible is wonderful. There are many good ones.

Keep going to church with your husband. The other church is not given, and I would not feel that I am in any position to tell you that you can disobey your husband and go someplace else. If that's where he wants you to be, you can still worship God in that church, no matter whether what's coming out of the pulpit is thoroughly biblical or not. It is the house of God and you can worship there.

Scripture is crystal clear, absolutely crystal clear. Homosexuality is classified along with murder and adultery and everything else. It is in that list of sins. But, if you think that homosexuality is a genetic disorder...which scientists have not proved yet--maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But what would give a homosexual person who claims that he was born that way, what gives him the right to be sexually active when God has made it crystal clear that the only place for sexual activity is in the marriage bed?

You single women, you do not have an area in which you can exercise your sexual desires. They have to be brought under the lordship of Jesus Christ. What gives the homosexual the right to think that he has a special dispensation to sleep with members of the same sex? God deplores it. He hates it.

The same way. Everything in my life I want to be an offering to Jesus Christ. It's not difficult to make the writing of a book, the acceptance of a speaking engagement, or the preparation of a radio program to be an offering to Jesus Christ. That's not very hard. But it is very hard to make this kind of thing an offering. But it's simple. It's not easy, but it's simple.

Every time that pain is again evident in your life, every time you are reminded of it, and every time you feel guilty because you see someone in a wheelchair who is much worse off than you are, offer your pain to God. God is the one who measures out exactly the amount of suffering that you and I need in order to become conformed to the image of Christ.

And if this is a small thing, which nevertheless needles you constantly, accept it as a small thing. There are small things in my life that you don't hear about on the radio and that I don't put into my books. These are the "givens." Let me not stew over the fact of the "not givens."

Of course, the only reason the church discourages you from having children in the services is that most young parents haven't a clue about keeping a one-year-old quiet. You must train the child at home. Obviously, one day a week when he's in church, he's not going to sit quietly if you haven't trained him to sit quietly at home.

And I had a letter, not very long ago, from a woman who gave a marvelous little recipe for how to do this. When her son was about five months old, she began to train him to rest. By this she meant she would take him on her lap facing her, and she took ahold of his arms and held them strongly, but not squeezing him too hard, and just looked him straight in the face and said, "Jeremy, rest."

And of course, Jeremy is flailing and furious and screaming. She said, "As soon as he would start to flail and scream, then I would start over on the five-minute timing because I wanted it to be only five minutes each time." So, she would tell him again, "It's time to rest. We are going to rest."

She said she had to do this sometimes up to twenty minutes or so. She did it every day for two whole weeks. She said, "Believe me, he screamed his head off. He was absolutely furious. He was red in the face. But at the end of two weeks he had learned what it means to rest." She said, "I can take him anywhere. I can take him to church. I can take him to a friend's house. I can take him to anyplace where he has to be perfectly quiet and he knows what the word means."

My parents required that we sit still at family prayers. We had family prayers twice a day. We had to sit still. We had to sit still at the table. There was never any jumping up and down from the table. We were never allowed to go and get another glass of milk without asking permission. We had to sit still in the car. There were no seat belts in those days. You can train your child, so that is my strongest suggestion.

What I would love to say is that the preacher ought to be preaching this from the pulpit, because nobody is saying these things. Everybody is just taking it for granted "Oh, they are just little kids; you can't expect them to sit still." Of course you can expect them to sit still, if you train them. Children live up to your expectations. If you think they are going to be little devils, they will most certainly live up to your expectations.

I appreciate that question, because there seems to be a permanent standoff on this matter of Titus 2:3-5. It says there that the older women are to teach the younger women. They are to teach them to love their husbands, to love their children, to stay home and a whole lot of other things in order that the Word of God may not be maligned.

The older women are complaining to me saying, "The younger women don't want to hear our advice." The younger women are complaining to me that the older women are not making themselves available. Let's have a show of hands here right now, women under forty who would be willing to listen to the advice of women over forty, put your hand up. Look at this!

Okay, you women who are over forty, who are willing to make yourselves available if anybody wants your advice, let's see your hands. You see, there's no need for the standoff. My answer to the question is "Let it be known." The most important way I can think of that you might let it be known in your church would be something very simple. God forbid, that we start another meeting in your church. Do not start a club, do not have a newsletter, do not start a meeting.

Put up a piece of paper on the bulletin board with your name. It should just say, "These are the older available women in this church. Call me." Down at the bottom say, "Obviously, these women cannot all be available all the time." There will be times when you cannot be available. But suppose there were four women in the church who would say, "I'd be glad to answer a question about how to potty train a two-year-old," or "I can tell you how to cook a turkey." They don't have to be spiritual things, but very often they lead to that, don't they. So that's the way you can make it known that you want to be available.

You younger women can go to the older women and say, "I am open to any advice you want to give me." Maybe an older woman has noticed the terrible behavior of your child in church. You need help, and very likely she could give it to you. So we need to fulfill Titus 2:3-5.

Now, here's a caution. Every one of you women is an older woman. Here's a girl in the front row with glasses and a black sweater or something. How old are you? She is eleven. She is an older woman to a five-year-old or a seven-year-old or a three-year-old. I remember when I was nine, my next door neighbor was fifteen, and we moved to a new area. I was very shy and didn't have any friends and was very lonely. This fifteen-year-old girl was such a sweet, loving, outgoing person. She became a spiritual mother to me.

I want to say to every single one of you that you ought to be a spiritual mother to someone, no matter what your age is. Of course, I think Paul was talking about what we usually think of as the older women and the younger women, but let's not absolve ourselves of responsibility to be an example to someone younger.

Lisa Barry: Have you thought of your own question yet? While you put the finishing touches on your letter, I'd like to encourage you to remember the financial needs of this program. We don't like to talk about finances much because it's not the highest priority of the program. But, nevertheless, it is important.

So the things you might include in your letter are, first, a request to purchase this week of talks entitled, "The Omnipotence of Love." And second, you can include your own question that you would like a response to. We'd also like to hear what is happening in your life and the way in which this program is making a difference. Finally, if you could include a financial gift for the broadcast with your letter, we would greatly appreciate your generosity.

Here's how you can address your letter:

Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, NE 68501. Or you can call toll free, 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Our Web address is gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

We'll hear a few more questions from the audience tomorrow, so be sure and join us then for the next Gateway To Joy.