Today begins the first of our 2012 Contributors. You will be blessed!  I am also over at The Modest Mom writing about new years resolutions, so I hope you will join me over there as well…

I hear ladies say they are lonely. They say they feel isolated in the beliefs they hold of Biblical womanhood and the impact it brings. They sense they are blazing a trail in private seclusion. I empathize. I used to feel the same way.

But as the years have gone by I am no longer lonely. The Lord has blessed me with two wonderful friends. Now there are two women who live with me who share my love for home. They see it as the sanctuary and instrument of evangelism that it is.

Now two other women live with me who believe as I do, that children are a blessing and a reward that God has graciously and undeservedly granted to me. They understand that a woman’s influence over a child is immeasurable. They are always available to encourage and pray for me.

These two other women share my day to day workload of housework and child training. They even sing as they work and many times do a better job at tasks than I do.

These two other women are not yet full-grown. But by the Lord’s grace they soon will be. They are my closest companions. They are my teenaged daughters, ages 15 and 16.

There was a day that these two were baby girls that sat in their highchairs, kept me awake at night and required my constant giving of self. Undeservedly (because I messed up in so many ways!), I am now reaping tremendous blessings from those years. I am no longer as deep in the motherhood trenches as I used to be because the Lord has given me friends and co-laborers.

Investing in Your Daughter’s Heart

Protect your daughters from the lies of feminism. She will have enough “home grown” feminism to battle in her own heart without being encouraged in it by the world. Remember that who she is at five, she will be at fifteen. Pour the Word into her from day one, and spend quality and quantity time with her, encouraging the fruits you see. Provide her with tools to learn what God expects of His daughters.

Then talk, talk, talk and talk some more, always keeping your finger on her spiritual pulse. When she is young, give her toys that let her role-play real womanhood–baby dolls, not Bratt dolls. Protect her from corrupt companions as well as media that confuses her or belittles sin, such as Christian romance novels or music.

Have high (not unattainable, but high) expectations of her. The Bible has nothing to say about teenagers, so have adult expectations and prayerfully, she will rise to meet them.

Our daughters need the same things our sons do, in many ways. Because when the day is done, and her years under your roof have drawn to a close… her life, her mind, her purity of thoughts and deed rests in Christ’s perfect power, not your own.

And for those of you who are lonely, press on. The season of babies and toddlers will come to a close and you will be sad in some ways, as I am. But Lord willing, you will also be less lonely.

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Bambi is the helpmeet to her high school sweetheart for seventeen years now, and they have seven blessings they are raising together for the glory of God.  Their eighth baby (a girl!) will be joining them in March, Lord willing.  Bambi enjoys good coffee, homeschooling, reading meaty books and spending time outdoors.  She enjoys blogging about family discipleship, marriage and motherhood at her blog In the Nursery of the Nation.