Keeping Secrets is a Good Thing

Sometime in Fall, 2011, I stumbled upon a book while browsing through a bookstore that caught my eye. The title is Six Ways to Keep the "Little" in Your Little Girl (Guiding your daughter from her tweens to her teens...)by Dannah Gresh. I flipped through it, was inspired, intrigued, curious, and finally distracted by my children. I left the book there but kept thinking of it. When Chad began school in Jan, 2012 and needed some books ordered from Amazon, I threw that one in the cart for myself. It is a VERY GOOD book for mothers of girls around the ages of 8-12. It is a very upfront, in your face, deliberate guide to parenting girls in today's world. I believe if we are going to be successful parents, we must parent with INTENTION and be very DELIBERATE in our actions and words. So what if it makes us uncomfortable, my Claudia and Cooper's success in life as moral people who love Jesus are worth me being a little squirmy in my seat when we have to talk about the big stuff. Fast forward to Spring, 2012 when Claudia and I attended a local mother/daughter conference for the first time. The gift for moms was this very book. It inspired me to pick it back up because I had actually never finished it. I also had an extra copy for sharing. I gave the new copy to sweet Rachel's mom, Michele. Fast forward to now...

The author of the book also founded the Secret Keeper Girl ministry. A Secret Keeper Girl is a girl who knows the importance and virtue of keeping the secrets of her body between herself and God. A SKG is not a mean girl, but is a girl who loves the Lord and strives to live out His truths in her life. A SKG is not perfect and falls prey to Satan, as we all do. The SKG tour empowers girls to look beyond the lies of Satan, who prowls like a roaring lion seeking to destroy, and CHOOSE instead to believe the promises of the KING of KINGS. Now, doesn't that sound like something Claudia and I need to be a part of? I THINK SO!

I have watched the website off and on hoping to catch the tour somewhere close to us and finally, BINGO! The SKG live Pajama Party was at First Baptist, Oxford, and we were so not going to miss it. We got Michele and Rachel on board and started looking forward to a night of bonding. The girls and I had to wait for Michele to get off work so we made a quick trip to see this precious angel. I have yet to post all my pics from his birth but for now, enjoy this eye candy...

Joshua Ryan

He is our newest obsession and we want to see him all the time. It is an added bonus that when we get to see him, we also get Gracie Lyn and Lily Kate, our other two LOVES.

Because it was a Pajama Party, our girls were sporting their PJ's along with all the other little Princesses. We had dinner and headed to FBC, Oxford. The girls before we found our seats...

I only took my phone bc I didn't want to be distracted by my big camera. This was all about Claudia and I spending honest, soul bearing, gospel learning time together. The party was from 6:30-9:00 and while I did struggle with sleepiness, I loved every minute of being there with my girl.

Just before we got started...

The party consisted of music, teaching, fashion shows, and games. The girls had so much fun. Just like I knew she would be, Claudia was a little reserved at first but she warmed up and let her hair down and really enjoyed it all. We had opportunity to quietly discuss topics, as prompted by the leaders, and we had prayer time to share those with the Lord.

We talked about the labels we, as girls, put on ourselves and each other. Funny/scary that the labels do not go away with age. I won't share the label Claudia shared with me that is her struggle but the realization for me that after all these years, my label of struggle is still weight was enlightening to me. Why hasn't it gone away? There is only one reason, not because I have not gotten healthier because really, this has more to do with a mental/heart struggle than it does a size struggle. It has not gone away because I have yet to truly give it to God and allow Him to take the struggle from me. I have yet to truly choose to believe His truth about who I am and what I am. I have yet to choose to listen more to Him than I do the lies of Satan that tell me I am not as good as this one or that one because she will always look better in her clothes than I do. I have never stopped wishing I could be the size of someone else, I have never said, this is how God made me, metabolism and all, and it is ok if I never wear a single digit size. And it made me wonder, if I cannot do it, how in the world will I ever teach Claudia to ignore the lies and focus on God's truth? Simple answer, I will never be able to do it. I will never be able to do any of it on my own, but GOD can do it through me and you know what, He really WANTS to do it! He wants to give me freedom from Satan's lies. He DIED so I could have freedom from those lies. He is such an amazing guy, that Savior of mine.

We talked about modesty and how very important it is to keep the secrets of our bodies, our own secrets with the Lord who designed us. Claudia gets this, I know she does. I can tell that the Holy Spirit whispers to her heart about the importance of this virtue and I can tell she is listening! I'm so proud of her for that.

Rachel gets it too. She is listening as well and I'm so proud of her and so thankful we have her in our lives. Michele feels the burden of importance that I feel to raise up a Godly woman who understands how important it is to love the Lord FIRST before the world and all its lies. Michele also believes in deliberate, intentional parenting of these girls. She and I share a bond of motherhood in this respect and I pray we always have each other to support when the lies come fast and furious at our girls.

One scripture we focused on was Psalm 45:11...

"The king is enthralled by your beauty;

honor him for he is your Lord."

It will be difficult for Claudia to learn to live this truth out in her life until I learn to model that behavior for her in my own life. It is the great desire of my heart to teach this beautiful Princess, daughter of the KING of KINGS, to understand and stand on God's promises through the storms of peer pressure and all that awaits her as a tween to teen. Last night was us building that pillar of strength in both of our hearts. Last night was about us learning to LISTEN to God and believe Him because He is who He says He is and His promises are true and trustworthy. 

It was a night that I will never forget. It ended with the grand finale of FIVE little girls becoming real life Princesses as they gave their hearts and souls to JESUS CHRIST, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I celebrated for their moms as I reflected on the pure JOY I experienced the night my Claudia became a real life Princess. I pray we have many more experiences such as this to keep us on track as Secret Keeper Girls!