Oh, OK. This one’s hard to make second. It’s a favorite, too. This is me holding Erin’s brand spankin’ new baby boy while she talks about how much she loves being a wife and mom…something we encourage in the teen girls during a time when society says those are second rate positions. (God tends to disagree!)

There’s lots of laughter through out the day, as we use a game-show-meets-talk-show format and invite special guests in for coffee shop banter. Here’s a good giggle from Kristyn Getty (of Keith and Kristyn Getty) as her husband that the way he protected her purity was to “marry her fast!”

The girls really do press into the Biblical teaching on lies about guys, beauty and the future (being a wife and mom). And, we follow a trail right to the Truth that sets them free.

Now, that’s not where the mother/daughter connecting happens. It happens in the main sessions where you hear from Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Janet Parshall, Joni Tada, Kay Arther and more! I even made an appearance there last spring in my fuzzy slippers (shown below as I explain them to FamilyLife’s Bob Lepine.)

And on the main stage panel discussion with some of my favorite girls!

Are you looking for a great way to connect to your teen this fall? Why not come spend a weekend with me, Nancy Leigh DeMoss and the entire True Woman team. For more information, click here!

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

I John 5:14,15 

Here we are. Day twenty-nine of our thirty day journey. On our first day, I wrote about the fact that we can ask our God for “anything” and he hears us. I dared you to take a little time each day to pray for your “anything.”  I wrote:

What is the one thing you can’t imagine God doing for your daughter? Maybe reconcile her to her father? Perhaps relieve her from an illness? Or are you haunted by her self-hatred when she looks in the mirror?Today I want you to pick ONE HUGE THING to ask God for during this thirty days. Though we will have specific prayer focuses each day, I want you to ask for this one “anything” each and everyday.

Did you ask? Did he hear?Today, I want to remind you that you can ask God for ANYTHING for  your children and dare you to practice the act of pestering the Lord with the things that weigh heavily on your heart. I’d be really blessed if just a few of you could take a few moments to write down how God has answered an “ANYTHING” request in your life.

P.S. Be sure to come back tomorrow. I’m going to give away free stuff for our faithful praying moms…and the blessed ones, too! (Translation: You don’t have to have prayed with us to win!)

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Proverbs 22:6

I’m holding a brand new copy of Six Ways To Keep The Little In Your Girl. In those pages, I write about beginning the pray for my daughter when I was just nineteen. I didn’t want her to know my hurts. I wanted to be able to help her navigate past them. At least the big ones. I really never stopped pleading with God for the help to raise a godly girl, and he’s been so generous in answering that prayer. Lexi is head-over-heels in love with Jesus,  not boy-crazy, and is a bold testimony for Christ to her unsaved friends. Autumn, whom we just adopted three years ago, is an eager new believer with a great heart of mercy. I’m so blessed. (Thank you, Lord!) I believe the promise that if we attempt to raise them to know God’s way, they will not depart when they are old. (Might a bit while they are  young, but not when they’re old!)I know it was from prayer that God has built these beautiful girls for me, and I hope you’ll be encouraged to keep praying even though our thirty days is over. To help you in that effort, I want to give away five copies of my brand new book. Hey, it’s my official “release day.” Celebrate with me. I’m going to randomly select five winners to receive a free copy of Six Ways To Keep The Little In Your Girl. For a chance to win simply:

1. Visit the Six Ways To Keep The Little In Your Girl bookstore page.
2. Write a comment below telling me specifically how it might encourage you as you raise your girl.
3. Come back one week from September 1st to find out who has been randomly selected to win.

Keep praying, moms!

“What, don’t you know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?”

I Corinthians 6:19 

Morning mom! Get your coffee pot on. It’s quiet a day for me, so I have to make this short today. My heart is filled with the prospect of our daughter’s actually EMBRACING modesty…not just obeying us. I was struck yesterday by an encounter that left me bruised at the thought that sometimes we end up doing things out of obedience only, as resentment grows and grows. But when we do it out of a faithful embracing of what we are called to, our  hearts live out that specific value. Let’s join together—on a day when one of my daughter’s first choices was vetoed by mom—for our girls to embrace our vision for honoring The One who dwells within us.

“Teach…your children…when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Deuteronomy 11:19 

This weekend I experienced one of the best days of being a mom ever. I really got to connect with my girls. It all started with groans and grumbles about getting up early to go to the county fair to see a horse show. Once I had those blurry-eyed teenagers in the car, everyone’s attitudes got a little brighter thanks to smoothies that I made just before we walked out the door. Then, we hit the horse show and hearts just blossomed. Our favorite part was the Pennsylvania State Police Department’s Mounted Officer Unit. Man, were those draft horses a sight, and the amazing control and gentleness they exuded despite their size just told stories about self-control and honor. We started our day at 9:00am with horses and ended it at 10:30 with horses. And we felt connected by them. I didn’t preach one word about God all day, but the girls saw and heard me interact with the officers in a godly manner. I think sometimes the verse from Deuteronomy—while primarily calling us to teach our kids God’s truths—calls us to just live in front of them in a godly way as we connect. This takes more creativity as your girls grow older, but it cannot be forgotten. Time is one of your greatest tools to building a godly girl. Here are a few crazy ideas that I included in Six Ways To Keep The Little In Your Girl. They’re not my ideas! They come from the hearts of three girls I respect a lot, but you may know as Barlow Girl. Here’s what Rebecca, Alyssa and Lauren Barlow suggested for some crazy mom and daughter time:

1.) Bake!

2.) Go Bowling!

3.) Go Hiking! (No make-up!)

4.) Buy clothes!

5.) Drive-In Theatre with a truck load of girls and popcorn!

6.) Ice Cream!

7.) Old Fashioned Movies like Gary Cooper!

8.) Girls “Dateless” Nite Out!

9.) Do A Corn Maize!

10.) Get Your Nails Done At The Spa!

Take some time today to ask God to give you your own creative ways to connect with your girl!

 “Make the most of every opportunity.”

Ephesians 5:16 

“One of the things my children left behind when they flew the coop was a billion miles on my ‘91 Moore-mobile. OK. So it was only 127,000. But I felt every mile of it. In fact, I’m still feeling it since I’m still driving it. Present active participle verb tense: 130,000 miles and counting.”-Best selling author, Beth Moore (A.K.A. Carpool Queen)My mom was the Carpool Queen and a Sleepover Diva. I wish I could say the same of myself. These two roles come with a bit of a grudge for me. I don’t really feel like I am accomplishing things when I’m driving my girls all over creation. Sleepovers tend to leave me with grumpy girls the next day. That’s my heart. Ugly as it is. But as I was writing Six Ways To Keep The Little In Your Girl, my heart changed. I began to see all the research indicating how valuable that time can be if a mom makes the most of it. (Seems like God had something to say about that in the verse about, huh?) For example, driving carpool is a great way to do research on your kids. Keep the volume on your radio down, and you can really tune in to the generally unfiltered interactions of friends. You learn who burps the loudest, who has the meanest teacher, and who has a boyfriend. Just enjoy and learn. God will guide you in how to use this…ah..”intelligence” later on.Do you need a better attitude about carpool time? Ask God for that today!

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”I Peter 3:3,4

You may remember that nothing came between Brooke and her Calvins! This ad campaign, criticized at the time for it’s highly sensual nature, is baby-stuff compared to the advertising thrown at our girls today. From the pornographic nature of the Abercrombie and Fitch posters to the un-unatural targeting of girls as young five, our daughter’s face branding giants that are even making their way into the public school system. (After funding wasn’t working for a public broadcasting company to provide school programming, a major tween branding giant recently bought the rights to broadcast into our nation’s public schools. Not much yet on how that’s going to be used.) Where can we go without being branded?I’m afraid most parents are buying right in to it. In 2009, the 8-12 year old demographic spent a whopping $43 billion nationwide on things like clothing, food, toys, electronics and let’s not forget cell phones. For girls, the pressure is relentless to try on and wear clothes designed to highlight female allure and to desire other beauty products that they don’t even need. The findings of a two-year study by the American Psychological Association on the Sexualization of Girls found that the marketing associated with these products—and the products themselves—are linked to eating disorders, low self-esteem, depression, and early sexual activity. Instead of making girls feel good about their bodies, they end up feeling fat or unattractive. Instead of taking romantic relationships in when they are old enough to do so, they end up emotionally scarred by the time they meet the man of their dreams. Instead of continuing the value formation of self-control, they’re disrupted by excessive materialism. Enough is enough! It’s time to unbrand our girls. I write at great length about the two ways to do this in my new book Six Ways To Keep The Little In Your Girl. But for now, let’s just attack it with prayer. Take time today to pray the truth from the verse above into your daughter’s life. Ask God to give her a quiet and gentle spirit that is of great worth in God’s sight.

“Dear friends, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyonewho does what is evil has not seen God.”

3 John 1:11

“Do you remember Holly Hobby? Imagine our girls taking one of those old, prairie dolls to a sleep over! You might as well paint a big fat “L” on her forehead. Today’s dolls are much move saavy. And, you might even say, sexy! There’s Barbie who retains the title of most-physically impossible physique after fifty years. If she were an atual woman, her breasts would be so heavy she’d be forced to walk on all fours! (I’m not kidding.) There are the Bratz dolls, with their street-smart sexy edge, complete with smokey eyes, fish-net stalkings and pouty lips! Bratz was the first doll in line to actually give Barbie a run for her money. As I write this Mattell (maker of Barbie) and MGM (maker of Bratz) are embroiled in lawsuits, because, together these two dolls rank as the top-selling brands for girls ages 8=12. The only thing bigger than Barbie’s…ere, figure…is her sales “figures.” (Oh, how I wish I could change that!) Here’s the deal: when our daughters play with cute, non-sexual dolls they tend to let imaginative play loose. They role-play and create, giving muscle to their executive function (which controls value formation). But when our daughter’s play with dolls that have a more seductive nature, they tend to be more confined in their imaginative play. It generally leans toward “seduce the boy.” Diane Levin says, “The more time a girl plays this way, the more she’ll focus on looks and coquettish behavior, and the less time she’ll spend doing the open-ended activities kids need. It puts her on a conveyor belt to sexualization.” (From Six Ways To Keep The Little In Your Girl.)

Don’t run out and buy up all the vintage Holly Hobbies. (You might try some Groovy Girls.) My point to this blog post isn’t actually dolls at all. Rather, it’s to get you to take a look at how play of any kind will influence your girl. I think I John 1:11 puts it best. Is the kind of play your daughter is into (whether dolls or dancing) imitating godly behavior or evil behavior? Ask God about that, and how to solve the problem if the answer isn’t good. If the answer is good, then enjoy this “atta girl” from one mom to another! (P.S. Still praying for your “anything?”)

“By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:35 

“Raising children with your values at home is necessary, but not sufficient. The outside world influences them, and so we need to influence it.”

-Joe Kelly, Dads & Daughter’s National Organization

I agree with Joe Kelly, and that’s why I started The Modesty Project. Our goal is to send a message to the fashion industry that we want them to provide age appropriate and modest clothing for our daughters. Over 28,000 moms and daughters have joined us. Last October, we all went shopping to send a positive and loving message to three clothing retailers who consistently sell age-appropriate clothing for our girls in a family-friendly environment. I don’t mid saying that the winners (voted on by our moms) were Old Navy/Gap Kids, Lands End/Sears, and The Children’s Place. It was a really great day for me to help my then fifteen-year-olds that a.) we’re here to stand for something and b.) we should always do that with love. The picture above shows Lexi purchasing something with a cashier who could not believe that someone was sending a message of thanks rather than a message of “let’s-hate-and-boycott-someone.” He was so funny. He kept saying: “Really? Really?”It was a great teaching moment for my daughters…and for me. Yes, we are supposed to stand for Truth, but we are supposed to do it stamped with love. And that’s such a rare thing that we shock people when we do it.Take some time today to ask the Lord for insight into two things. #1.) What is something you can do with your daughter to influence your world? #2.) Is what are currently participating in something that influences with world with love?

“Unless the Lord builds the house, its laborers build in vain.”

Psalm 127:1

“I couldn’t believe it. Moments ago I was sitting at the kitchen table ready to sink my teeth into a huge plate of PMS-magic—cheese-stuffed meatloaf glazed in bar-b-cue sauce, mashed potatoes, and a freshly baked blueberry muffin! It had been an extra stressful week, and I was beyond tired. Somewhere between “Amen” and my first bite, Bob casually asked me about—brace yourself—laundry. Now, in his defense, I think he was wondering whether he needed to do it. It seemed to be stacked as high as Mt. Everest. It was a neutral comment to him. But I hate doing laundry. And I was tired. And I had my mind on ten minutes of calorie consumption to soothe my stress. (Did I mention PMS?)

I lost it big time.

Before I had time to consider my actions, I’d flipped my plate into the air and I was watching it soar toward my husband in slow-mo.

I’m a really imperfect mom. That’s why I’m so thankful for the a more literal translation of Psalm 127:1, which would be: “Unless the Lord repairs the house, it’s laborers build in vain.” Hey girls, he’s going to have to do some repairs on your girl…and mine! We are flawed beings raising flawed beings.

I was recently asked what kind of moms I hope will buy my new book, Six Ways To Keep The Little In Your Girl. I answered, “I hope they are moms who want to raise godly daughters, but I also hope they are imperfect moms because I am an imperfect mom.” In the book, I tell just how imperfect I can be when I share the infamous meatloaf story.

Do you feel imperfect today?

Let’s pray Psalm 127:1 over you. I’ll join you.

“Lord, build and repair my home heart by heart. Build and repair me.

Build and repair __________,_________ and _________.

Do not let my labor as a mom be in vain. In Jesus Name, Amen.”