Raising Girls to be Powerful Women of God

As the mother to a daughter, no challenge seems greater to me than raising girls to be powerful women of God.

Womanhood is intensely difficult and beautiful and humbling and empowering. Sometimes, it’s all of those in the same moment.

But being a woman isn’t a one size fits all kind of endeavor.

And helping our girls embrace what womanhood is for them and as daughters of the King is supremely difficult, especially so in a culture that strives to erase any differences between the genders.

First, to raise a Godly woman, I have to BE a Godly woman.

She will follow my example more than my instruction.

She needs to see me in my Bible. I cannot expect her to love reading a book she doesn’t see me love.

And she needs to see me live God’s values.

I try to do a lot of my thinking out loud when I need to make a decision or walk through why I chose to behave a certain way, turn off a certain program, etc. I pray with her over many concerns, so stopping in the middle of even a car ride to pray is normal. Although she insists I don’t close my eyes.

Especially, I need to live out my witness as I work through my personal sins. I want her to see me turn to Jesus when I feel rejected, to turn to prayer when I’m frustrated, to seek forgiveness when I’ve offended.

Doing all of these things with the peace and joy of Christ, I can demonstrate the beauty of a woman who delights in the Lord and the season and role where He has placed me.

Secondly, I want to raise my daughter to be proud of her femininity.

God created women in His image. He didn’t create us an an afterthought, but created woman from man to demonstrate the depth of the marriage relationship.

God created us purposefully separately FOR us, to show men how to care for and treat us. Husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies.

It was also for us to learn how serving and helping our husbands is caring for ourselves. That we are one flesh.

It took me a long time to recognize my unique beauty as God’s creation, not less than men, but as precious and special.

I want to raise my daughter to know what is beautiful.

Years of chasing physical beauty showed me that it was never enough. It didn’t fill the holes in my heart. And the people who liked me for being pretty, didn’t love me.

Furthermore, my weight, age, hair style didn’t make me nearly as beautiful as did the gentle, softened heart God worked in me.

I also had to embrace my femininity for all it is and isn’t.

The other day my daughter walked through the room while my husband and I were watching some police drama. She stopped to watch this woman fighting with a man twice her size and made a comment that she liked to see that women were strong and powerful, too.

My first reaction was that women are strong and powerful, but in real life, that woman would have very little chance of defeating her significantly muscled, well-trained male opponent. Some women are stronger than some men, but Hollywood’s portrayal of 100 lb. women superhumanly defeating linebackers just isn’t realistic.

And I found myself strangely upset. Why isn’t it okay to be who we really are?

Women can be tough and fierce, absolutely. Be strong, train long, run hard.

But don’t measure your success against any standard lower than God’s.

Some of the strongest things I’ve seen women do have nothing to do with physical prowess. The unique strength of a women is found in her heart, her ability to offer kindness to someone who doesn’t deserve it, to patiently discipline and raise a child who challenges every word, to love others in actions when the feelings aren’t there, to keep going when she is running on fumes and prayer.