
Change happens. Whether we like it or not, our little girl is growing up! In our Beautiful Girlhood/ The Companion Guide to Beautiful Girlhood, you can examine the different facets of transition your daughter is facing. She is experiencing so many changes in her body, in her thinking, and even in her feelings. (You can find out so many more ideas for activities and Bible study in The Companion Guide to Beautiful Girlhood ) In several chapters, we look at the difficulties and the benefits of your daughter staying acquainted with both mom and dad. I know ladies; I can almost hear some of you thinking that acquainted sounds like an archaic term! But I can assure you of this, there is so much value in this concept for our daughters.
Mother-Daughter Relationship
Often, it is counter-intuitive for young women to remain aware and in-tune with people they are closest to. When they are undergoing this powerful transition some girls draw into themselves, hole up in their rooms, become less talkative because they are trying to process what is happening to them. As a mom, you might feel like you can’t say or do anything that makes your girl happy. They become acutely aware of situations that occur in the normal everyday life of a family and take it personally or feel slighted. I like to call this malady ingrown eyeballs. The symptoms are oversensitivity, egocentric thinking, and dare I say, downright selfishness. This can be hard to deal with even if she has just a touch of it!
One of the weapons in your mom-arsenal is training your daughter to look outside of herself and her needs. By training her to be selfless you will be doing her a great favor in the present and future relationships.
Mom, do you realize this is a perfect time to take the first step in developing a two-way relationship with your daughter?
By remaining acquainted with your daughter, and she with you, you are molding her into a woman who can identify and experience healthy friendships with other women. Unfortunately, we’ve all had a friend or two where it was all about her. Friendship is a two-way street.
Father-Daughter Relationships
Another weapon in your mom-arsenal is to find ways to include dad in this process of being acquainted. Let me suggest m The Three Weavers Plus Companion Guide. This book was written by my husband and me and is a tale based on a story written by Annie Fellows Johnson entitled The Three Weavers. When I approached Bob about doing this with me he said he would under two conditions. 1. It must be short. 2. It must be to the point. This study is 7 chapters, includes a Bible study for Dad, a Father-Daughter Bible Study, Discussion Guide, and Activities.