It was my privilege to work with Phyllis Stanley for thirty years in Five Aspects Ministries. Of the many godly women who joined me in that work, I have known none more committed to God, to His Word, to obedience, and to the work of discipleship than Phyllis Stanley.
Phyllis was a stand-out in any crowd with her bright blue eyes, blond hair, and mega-watt smile. I see her vividly even now baking bread in her cheery, red kitchen where she taught countless students the principles of baking and nutrition. I see her in her family-room chair reading the Bible. I see her graciously and warmly welcoming streams of women into her home for fellowship and learning.
Phyllis did not merely influence women with her warmth, her graciousness, and her radiance. She taught what was good by being a trainer. Her classes were characterized by focus and disciplined training. There were entrance requirements to get into her classes and standards to meet in order to stay in them. Phyllis required diligence of her students and gave twice for all she required.
For these reasons I know of none who surpassed Phyllis in the fulfillment of Titus 2:3-5. She taught what was good, encouraging the young women “to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.”
In 2009, I dedicated the book Seasons of God—Spirals of Life to her with these words: PHYLLIS STANLEY—my co-laborer and friend in seedtime and harvest these past 20 years. On her 70th birthday, I commissioned a jewelry box for her to be hand-painted with two trees. The inscription was “The Pine and the Pecan stood together” (the pine representing her in her Colorado home and the pecan representing me in Texas). We stood together, with me as a writer of words and with her as a trainer of students.
The work of a writer does not go far if it does not find the “good soil” that bears thirty, sixty, or hundredfold. Phyllis was certainly the kind who “heard the word in an honest and good heart, who held it fast, and who bore fruit with perseverance” (Mark 8:15). Year after year, for three decades, her Aspects classes (limited to 12 students) filled up. Overflow applicants were put on a waiting list.
Sixteen more years have rolled past since that time, and now Phyllis has gone to be with the Lord. I am thankful for her. I rejoice in the years we labored together in God’s vineyard. Now I rejoice that she is at rest and for the rich heritage her physical children and her many spiritual daughters have received. She has closed a well-spent life worthy to be remembered and emulated.
As I consider how to sum up her multiple virtues, I realize she not only taught the principles of The Five Aspects of Woman, she became each aspect—ruling her domain for God, helping her husband and an expansive realm around her, giving the life of both physical and spiritual bread, and training the untaught as a lady wisdom with standards of excellence. Finally, embracing her role as the “glory of man,” she became what all godly women truly desire. She became a glory to God.
