Hey there,

The weeks seem to be flying by don’t they? Each week, we have the opportunity to learn more about our girls and shape their lives for the Lord. The previous two weeks we went over the twin character sisters called Honesty and Sincerity.  Now, ladies, I want to focus your gaze on the next four weeks of study as you read Beautiful Girlhood with your daughter and do the exercises specially designed for her in The Companion Guide to Beautiful Girlhood.   Set your eyes upon four instrumental components in your daughter’s development called Ideals, Ambitions, The Power of Purpose, and Dreams.

Mable Hale (author of Beautiful Girlhood) said, “An ideal is a mental conception of perfection. It is a picture in the mind of things as we should like to have them. Every girl has her ideals in one way or another and is working toward them. She may be careless and hardly conscious of what she is doing, yet certainly, she is following after her ideal. She has in her mind the picture of the woman she wants to be. No girl can rise higher than her ideal.”

To illustrate the importance of choosing ideals wisely here is a story I heard.  I am told the Canadian Northlands experience only two seasons, winter and July. As the back roads begin to thaw, they become muddy and vehicles traveling through the backcountry leave deep ruts. The ground freezes hard during the winter months, and the highway ruts become a part of the traveling challenges. For vehicles entering this rugged and underdeveloped area during the winter, there is a sign which reads,

“Drivers please choose carefully which rut you drive in

because you will be in it for the next 20 miles.”

Mothers, I urge you to note, examine, and discuss ideals you see your daughter acquiring. Once she chooses them, they will influence her decision-making for a very long time.

Striving to stay out of the ruts,

Activities

• This week, be watching what your daughter talks about, the women she admires, the people she tries to emulate. Prayerfully consider her choices and speak with her if you have any concerns.
• Pray, pray, and pray some more. This fine-tuned ideal molding can only be done by our Father. He knows exactly who He has designed her to be, what He wants her to accomplish, and how he wants to accomplish this task.

Lord,

I know you will bring my daughter onto the path You want her to go. I praise You that will lead her on a God-honoring path that she hasn’t even dreamed of!

You promise to make the darkness and confusion she feels bright and all the areas in her life that are crooked straight. Praise You that You will never forsake her. Have your way with her life.

Amen

Memory Verse

Isaiah 42:16 KJV

^“And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not;

I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.”

Post and Ponder

• When you were a girl at this age, what was your concept of the ideal woman or ideal life? How did this influence the decisions you made? For good? For not so good?
• What are some ways you can hold up and offer godly ideals to your daughter without saying a word? Right now, I can only think of two. How about you? Share them with us.