By Dannah Gresh, founder of True Girl
I have a mother who loves her Bible and prays faithfully. When I was eight years old, she handed me my first daily devotional for children. It was the beginning of a life-long love of reading my Bible and soaking in Truth. Recently, I was quite sad to discover how unusual it was for my mom to initiate an effort to encourage my devotional life at such a young age.
When I wrote Lies Girls Believe, I had coffee with hundreds of moms and my team surveyed 1,531 Church-going girls aged 7-12 to get a snapshot of their beliefs and behaviors. I asked the mothers who attended my focus groups if their girls were reading their Bibles and praying daily. Here’s what they said:
- 30% said "yes."
- 48% said "no."
- 22% said they weren't sure.
Let me be blunt: read your Bible and teach your daughter to read hers. I hope these statistics burden you the way they do me, but if not here are three reasons your tween daughter needs to be in the Word of God.
1.) What we believe by our thirteenth birthday is generally what we die believing. Christian pollster George Barna said that to me many years ago and it stuck. While there are exceptions—Barna himself came to know Christ in his young adult years—they are few and far between. What your daughter is embracing, absorbing, and internalizing right now will stick with her for the duration of her life. Teach her now to focus less on the world and more on the Word.
2.) God's Word has the power to set her free from negative emotions. With the groundswell of anxiety and depression controlling tween girls, most of them need the power of God's Word to help them overcome. John 8:32 says you can know God's Truth and the Truth will set you free but John 8:31 offers a condition of sorts: you've got to be abiding in it. You cannot experience the freedom of God's Word unless you're reading it, meditating on it, and responding to life and God based on it. Guide her to experience firsthand the freedom God's Word can bring to the practical areas of her life.
3.) Reading her Bible is the most important habit she'll ever learn. The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. We know that. It's why we teach our kids to brush their teeth and say "thank you." (High five for that!) But it seems many moms are overlooking one of the most important habits of all: spending time in God’s Word! I encourage you to apply the same effort—or more—to the teach your children the habit of spending time with God that you do when you're teaching them to practice their piano regularly or make their bed. Why? Because it impacts all the other habits in their lives!
GIVE ME SIX WEEKS • I'LL GIVE YOUR DAUGHTER A ❤️ FOR HER BIBLE! Join me for just 45 minutes a week and we will make Bible study the most fun you and your daughter ever have growing closer to each other while you grow closer to Jesus. Our next study features the life of Esther, but that's really inconsequential. What's important is HOW she studies. Because every single story and each little word contains Truth and power for your daughter. She just needs to learn to access it.
That's where we come in! We'll teach her our 4-Z method of Bible study. She'll ZOOM IN to see the particulars, ZOOM OUT to get the context, ZERO IN to consider what it means for her life, and ZIP IT UP in prayer! What are you waiting for. Register now for Esther: Becoming a Girl of Purpose!
