How can we encourage each other as women?

Artwork Credit: Two Women in a Grove (1886) by Eugeniusz Wrzeszcz (1851–1917). Public domain image accessed via Artvee.com.

   It is natural to ask how we as women may encourage each other, because God has designed us to live in community. The Scriptures tell us to “comfort each other and edify one another” (1 Thes 5:11). This is not only a general instruction to the church, but also something that applies in particular ways among women. Paul told Titus that older women are to teach younger women “what is good” (Tit 2:3–5). That is encouragement in its most practical sense. It is not abstract or sentimental. It is concrete, lived out in daily life, and directed toward faithfulness to God.

    Encouragement may not always look like what the world expects. We are often told to celebrate each other’s confidence or freedom, but Scripture points us instead to perseverance, holiness, and faith. When Mary entered Elizabeth’s house, Elizabeth encouraged her by pointing to the faithfulness of God: “Blessed is she who believed” (Lk 1:45). The strength did not lie in Mary herself but in the God who had spoken to her. In Ruth’s words to Naomi, encouragement came through covenantal loyalty: “Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God” (Ruth 1:16). Both examples show women giving each other courage by recalling who God is and what He has promised.

    In our time, encouragement could mean walking with a sister who struggles in her marriage, not by telling her what she wants to hear but by reminding her that the Lord sees her and gives grace for obedience. It could mean helping a young mother who feels overwhelmed, not only with words but with small acts that lighten her load. It could mean affirming a single woman who feels overlooked, by reminding her that her worth rests in Christ and by sharing fellowship with her so that she does not feel isolated. In every case, the goal is not to increase self-reliance, but to strengthen faith in God.

    Encouragement among women matters because our trials often take forms that other women understand best. By God’s design, we are called to build one another up so that none of us loses sight of Christ. This is not about flattery or empty comfort. It is about holding each other to the hope of the gospel. When we ask how women can encourage each other, we are really asking how we may live out the truth that God has given us to one another as gifts of grace.