The author of the two Timothy letters in the Bible has Paul saying to this exceptional young man (who Paul first met on his second major voyage when Timothy was still a teenager):
"For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well" (2 Timothy 1:5).
How precious is the network of friends and family around us. Mary Baker Eddy once wrote to a student of Christian Science:
"You, dear one, are God's appointed to stand if others do not...Not but you can go apart to pray--this we all need to do, and I want you to do it. But note this, do not go where, if you get frightened, you have no one well skilled in truth to encourage you and neutralize error with Truth."
So then, when Paul and his friends were assaulted by hostile Jews and Gentiles (Acts 14: 5-7, 19-20), with Paul being almost stoned to death, how important it was that "the disciples stood round about him" with the result that he was able to continue on to Derbe the very next day.
Together they fought "the good fight of faith" (I Timothy 6: 12), and this network of believers was an encouragement to them all and surely enabled them and their families to continue in their Christly work of healing and of establishing church communities "before many witnesses" (I Timothy 6:12).
Julie Swannell
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