Courageous - Being Daughters rooted in Graceনমুনা

Growing up in today’s culture takes extraordinary courage. Yet it seems that the youth of this generation have increasingly fewer of the traits needed for the challenges before them. As a mental-health provider and ministry leader with over twenty years of experience, I have witnessed the negative effects of our culture on girls and women of all ages through the stories they share with me. 

I am blown away by the story lines they recount, many of which depict the same plot with different characters. Their lives resemble many of the narratives of my closest friends, my neighbors, and even my own daughters. So often we think the worst-case scenarios happen only to others. Yet we must know that all of us share in these stories.

Instead of actively teaching girls from a young age to use their voices boldly, society communicates that they should attract and maintain others’ love and affection. Social media, selfie culture, and instant fame through venues like YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, and reality television have created in little girls a deeply rooted desire to grow into something big. The danger in girls accepting and believing this cultural truth is the acceptance of the lie behind it: if you are not somebody, then you are a nobody. This is so far from God’s heart.

I hope you will be empowered to act and move toward love in order to grow strong and resilient yourself. This is what will help our daughters: being raised and influenced by women who are actively engaging and teaching them how to live through life’s hardness and filth, holding God’s hand every step of the way.

Raising daughters who have a sustained relationship with a personal, loving, and grace-filled God—and who know their purpose in life—requires more than just hope or routine attendance at Sunday morning church services. It requires more than just solid self-esteem and a good education. It requires even more than just parents who love their children. Those things are important, but what is really required is laying down our lives for our daughters—entering into their world to support them and committing ourselves to becoming courageous alongside them.

As you consider who your daughter is and who she is becoming, write a prayer for her from your heart. Give the prayer to her and let her tell you what she might add. Pray this prayer together.