Training Daughters

I have a daughter and that is all I know about raising so far but I do hope to have a boy one day! :)  With boys, you raise them to work but for girls we are to raise them to be homemakers.  I've learned a few things over the years from raising my daughter and will sure learn more as the years go by! I wanted to share what I've learned and do.

Home Economics should be a course in every girl's life from when she is young on up.  I've entertained the idea of making a curriculum for Home Economics for girls but have decided I don't have the time.  When my children are gone and grown I plan on taking that wisdom and helping others with it.  I wish there were older ladies that would have taught me, but I had to learn on my own.

I did find a Home Economics course geared towards my daughter's age that I'm adding to our curriculum this year and will let you all know how it is and then if I like it I will most likely recommend it on here!  It is by an older lady sharing her nuggets of wisdom for us younger ladies with a lesson each week in Home Economics at the early ages. Up until this time, I have taught her to do laundry, dishes, clean up and she has made pizza and cookies.  She loves to be like Mommy!!  

Our children learn from us and if we don't teach them, who will?  Pastor Kinson was speaking about teaching your children at home about God in a recent Bible study .  Have you read the Bible to your daughter regularly?  I even read the Bible to my daughter when she was in my womb.  A Christian should not neglect the greatest of all books to teach their child.  We should teach them daily God's word so they will be rooted and grounded in God's word and then they can be prepared to face the world and make their choice of what they will choose one day.

God can't lie!  Let's look at some scripture that we can rest confident in God if we do our part in what His Word teaches us:

Proverbs 22:6
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

If we train them up in the way of God, they will not depart from it.  Notice, we have to do our part to get the end result.  Should we not be ever so careful with their delicate, impressionable minds?  Yes!  God has called us to raise Godly seed unto Him and to teach them to fear the Lord.  We have such great responsibility and our daughter's lives can be determined by our following of God's Word not mere man's opinions.

Character training is another great thing we must teach our daughter's.  My daughter knows what being generous, thankful, loving, caring, compassionate is!  I had to teach her these things.  I could share stories all day of how she has demonstrated these character traits in day to day life among her peers but I will share just one:

There was a boy, about a year older than my daughter, sitting next to her.  An older lady came up to Katie and offered to buy her a candy bar.  The boy scrunched his face up and said "what about me?  You going to buy me one?"  She said "No, you can ask your Daddy to buy you one".  The boy got mad and by the time my daughter came back to sit down with her candy, his Dad had to come over to him.  He was telling his Dad how it wasn't fair he didn't get candy but before he could continue (without any prodding), my daughter gave him her candy!  He greedily snatched it away with the Dad having to make him say thank you but my daughter smiled and turned to me and said "I love to share Mom".  Now that made my heart melt and oh the joy of seeing your little one be so unselfish and generous even to an undeserving kid lol.

Teaching her thankfulness and saying thank you was one of the first lessons I ever taught her!  That is crucial - if you can get them to understand being thankful, then half the battle is won!  A thankful heart complains less of what they don't have and loves more.

This year we will learn a character trait once a month until it is fully grasped in day to day life.  

Daily prayer with our children and FOR our children is key.  I taught my daughter to pray when was very young.  I constantly ask her to do the prayer for the meal because it helps her get more familiar with speaking to God.  How do you teach a child to pray?  I simply taught her by saying "You talk to God just like you talk to me or a friend".  She really grasped that and sat in her bed that night talking to God.  Whenever she would get hurt or sick, we would pray and now its to the point if she hits her toe on the door, she immediately calls out to Jesus for healing lol. Yes, she knows who the Great Healer is!!!!  She has witnessed God's miraculous healing in my life and even her own life.  He has healed her of a lot of things on the spot and it has strengthened her faith.

Not only teaching them to pray but praying for our children is something we must do daily.  Before she was even born, I was praying for her to accept Jesus one day.  I've prayed for her every day (may have missed a day every now and then when sick,etc.) since she was born.  Some nights I've been so tired and just lay down and she comes to me and says "Mommy! You forgot to pray on me, I need you to pray on me." and that just melts my heart.  Many a nights, I have laid in her bed till she fell asleep and just watched her sleep and cried and called out to God for help in living the life before her daily and teaching her the ways of the Lord.

There is so much to be said about the subject of raising daughters in the admonition of the Lord. This is just a short introduction to Training Daughters and I hope to post about it again one day in the future.   A final note - God has entrusted you with the care of your daughter, let's not let him down!