Pray, Protect, Practice, Praise
We are living in a uniquely intense phase where technology is loud and in our face, telling us what beauty is and what that might look like for young girls. And so as parents, we just have this amazing privilege and opportunity to do a number of things for our kids.
First is to pray because this is a spiritual battle of the heart, and spiritual battles are fought on the battleground of prayer. So, are we praying for our kids? Are we praying for our interactions and conversations with them?
Another word that comes to my mind is protect. What is our role as parents and caregivers in protecting our girls from what they see online and from what they hear? We need to guard the gateways into our hearts, our eyes, and our ears. That’s a big job for us as parents—to protect them.
What Makes You Beautiful
Kristen Wetherell
This devotional, written for girls ages 9–12, explores the theme of beauty to help young readers appreciate the beauty of God, and in turn, become more beautiful themselves.
We also have the joy of practicing what we preach. So, we’re modeling for our young girls what we truly value, what God values, and what that looks like in our day-to-day lives. It might be different for every person, but where are our money and our resources going? Where are we spending our time? How do we speak of other people with our words in our daily lives?
And finally, we can praise them with our words, because they’re going to hear so many different voices. And the voice that they need to hear most of all is the voice of God and his word, and then the affirmation and the love of their parents that is ultimately rooted in God’s word.
So, we want to pray for our girls, we want to do all that we can to protect them, we want to practice what we preach in front of them, and we want to praise them with our lips.
Kristen Wetherell is the author of What Makes You Beautiful: 20 Daily Devotions for Girls.
Kristen Wetherell is a wife, mother, writer, and speaker. She is the author of several books, including Help for the Hungry Soul and the For the Bible Tells Me So board book series. Kristen is a member of the Orchard and lives in Chicagoland with her husband and three children.
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