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Happy birthday! Today, we celebrated another year older with our firstborn! It’s crazy how time flies when you’re raising children. I miss those days of watching her toddling around exploring everything and that sweet, curious nature. And then the independent, helpful days when my shadow extended to include her. And now, we’re closing in on those tumultuous teen years. While I’m not looking forward to the mood swings, I am excited to see God work in her life.
Do you have a 9-12-year-old daughter? I have two. If your daughter is anything like mine, she keeps comments close to her heart. Oh, sure, in a crowd, she exudes bravado and deflects thoughtless comments, but in private, she ponders those words. They settle in her spirit and she begins thinking she’s someone she’s not.
When I realized this, my heart stopped. That is not how I want my girls growing up. That’s the enemy’s game –creating doubt and distorting God’s view of us. I determined to spend more time in prayer over my baby girl and then because I’m a fixer, I wanted to fix this.
Tell me you’re with me. You’ve got a girl, a fiercely independent girl from all appearances, yet sweet and impressionable and you want to do something about it?
On my mission to make God’s words the loudest in a sea of voices, I discovered 4 ways to encourage a deeper relationship with God.
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Brave devotional –
Girls devotionals just got a whole lot better. We’ve always done family devotion’s at bedtime because that’s when everyone is at home together until two years ago. My daughters decided they wanted their own “girls only” devotional in the morning. I found one we loved but then we finished it and it was hard to find another. Devotionals for girls 9-12 are just meh. Things just got a whole lot brighter when Lynn Cowell released her brand new devotional for girls, Brave Beauty. My girls love it!
For the girl listening to her peers, here are 100 courage-building ways to find her confidence in God. Is your daughter hesitant to share the concerns she’s struggling with? I can’t tell you how many times my daughter simmers on something long before she’ll voice her thoughts to me. Not only do both of my daughters like this book, but so does mama. Lynn Cowell shares who God says our girls are. She uses personal experiences along with Biblical examples to tackle the hard stuff our girls wonder about but are maybe too afraid to talk about it. The mini-chapters are the perfect length and my favorite part is the “Getting to Know You” questions. I’ve gained greater insight into both of my daughters from their answers and it’s just fun for us to do together. I highly recommend this for your daughter or granddaughter or any tween girl you know! -
Encouragement jar –
Because I wanted to speak life and truth to my girls, I came up with this 5-Minute Encouragement Jar. I thought it would be nice if we could bottle up all the kind words anyone has ever said to us. On those terribly rotten days, we could reach into the jar and pull out a slip of paper with encouraging words that remind us of who we are. Words are powerful and take root deep inside our hearts and minds. Let’s encourage our girls to hide God’s words in their hearts. For this DIY, I pulled some items from the depth of my crafting closet to create a jar of encouragement for my daughters. Nothing fancy or expensive. You can use whatever you have on hand to create your own special words of encouragement for a family member or friend, or even for yourself when you need a reminder of who you are. It’s perfect for them to reach in, pull out a slip of paper with a Bible verse declaring who God says they are or a simple word of encouragement for the day. My girls like to pin them to the corkboard over their desk. For the full picture tutorial, click here.
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Scripture Memory –
There’s no better way to learn who you are in Christ than by reading His Word, the Bible. The younger our kids are when we teach them Scripture, the easier it is to memorize it. Not sure how to start memorizing? Check out this post on 5 Ways to Memorize Scripture that Actually Work.
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On your knees –
Prayer, mama. Prayer. When you’re washing dishes or folding laundry or bathing kids or cooking dinner, pray for your girl. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, we’re told to pray without ceasing. Pray without stopping. Don’t know what exactly to pray for? I love to follow @prayers_for_girls on Instagram because Teri posts a prayer prompt every day. I write these verses on 3×5 cards and keep them in my van, at my desk, and posted to my bathroom mirror to remind me to pray for them.
These are some of the ways that have encouraged my own daughters to seek a deeper relationship with the Lord. Whatever they face in life, I pray they turn to the Lord, drawing on these verses from the Bible to speak life to them, to point them back to Christ, and to know that God’s love truly is better than life.
I know you want that for your own daughter too. Have you discovered other ways to inspire your daughter to draw nearer to the Lord? To develop a quiet time now they can call their own?
I’d love to hear about it!
I almost forgot. Because we’re celebrating a birthday around here, we have a gift for you! I wish we had a gift for everyone, but we have ONE BRAVE BEAUTY book to giveaway! Would you like a chance to win it?
- Hop over to our Facebook page,
- Share this post with a mama or grandmama of a tween girl
- Comment on the post
Be sure to do ALL 3 of these and be entered into the drawing to win Lynn Cowell’s new release, Brave Beauty!
Happy birthday from the birthday girl!
GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING.
Disclaimer: The publisher provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Just a few short years and they will be teenagers ?? where did our babies go?!
I know! Time flies when we’re having fun! 😉
Carla, we would love to send you a copy of Brave Beauty! Please send us your shipping address to thefarmwyfe@aol.com. Thank you!
Thank you so much for sharing Brave Beauty 🙂
You are welcome! It’s an awesome book for girls! <3
Great article.shared on Facebook and Twitter and witha friend.thank you for giving me a chance to win
Thank you so much!
Thank you for the giveaway!!
I have an 11 year old who just entered middle school and I pray for my sweetie every morning. I would love for her to have a devotional like this to encourage her.
That’s awesome! She would love it!
Congrats, Laura Allman! We would love to send a copy of Brave Beauty to you for your daughter. Please send us your shipping address to thefarmwyfe@aol.com. Thank you!
I’m to late for the giveaway, but thankful for the review! I too have struggled to find legit devotionals for my girls and I will definitely be looking into this one.
Oh man! Sorry you missed it. Definitely, check it out! I highly recommend this one, Brave Beauty, and For Such a Time as This by Angie Smith. Both are wonderful!!!!