Confident Moms, Confident Daughters By Maria FurloughSample

Day Four: If We Don’t, Then Who Will?

Scripture: Proverbs 3:15, 4:6, 8

Please take some time to become more aware of the world your daughter is living in. She may be crying out for your help but is scared to ask. She wants to be strong but does not have the strength. I was a good kid who worked hard and appeared to love life. But my parents, peers, teachers, and coaches had no idea of the extent that I was willing to go to feel better about myself and to fix the mind battle in which I lived. I was excellent at hiding.

If our girls are great at hiding, then what do we parents have to do? We have to get even better at knowing. We must begin to pray for God to show us what is there instead of seeing only what we want to see. It is our job to offer our children the wisdom of God. “My son [or daughter], do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight, preserve sound judgment and discretion; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck” (Proverbs 3:21–22).

It is our job to impress God’s Word on our hearts and make it known in our homes.

It is our job to model for our children that God’s Word is not a burden, is not a list of dos and don’ts, and is not condemning. God’s Word is the hope that we cling to, and it’s life for our weary bones. It’s to be the accessory that we choose to put on each and every day, not because we’re required to but because we need to.

Why am I stressing the importance to fight for our children? Through years of working with junior high students and parents, I know that the worst thing to plague a parent’s ability to help his or her child is the inability to see past what they want to see. We see our daughters and we see the babies they started as. But there we stand alone. The world is treating our girls as if they are older. Even if your daughter wants to stay young and innocent (which many girls have the sincere desire to do), she is not equipped with the right tools to stand up on her own to the pressures on her.

We must do something. We must be the truth tellers! We are good enough. We are important. And if we don’t stand up in our homes for our daughters, then who will?

Ask God to grow you in wisdom as you parent your daughter.