The Best Way to Keep the "Little" in Your Girl
From a very young age our daughter’s will form a sense of what modesty, purity, and beauty are by what they are exposed to. This does not happen on accident. The media plays a huge factor in forming our daughter’s views of beauty and sexuality. Huge. Everything from what they see on TV to what toys they play with all form this view.
As a mother, it is our responsibility to shape this accurately for our daughters.
How can we do this in the midst of a lust-filled society?
It’s simple, and especially easy if you start at the beginning. However, if you have already allowed some things in, you’re going to have to make a tough decision.
Simply put, if we come across things–movies, toys, music, magazines, friends–that do not fit what is modest, and pure, and beautiful in the Lord, it must go. Without reservation, it needs to go.
We cannot tell our daughters that they need to be pure and acceptable to the Lord and allow them to listen to vulgar music–or even subtle music which focuses on a false view of “love” and attraction.
When my eldest daughter [who is now 14] was about 6 or 7 years old, I was listening to a country radio station in the car. Something that I did pretty often.
A song from a popular country artist came on.
I was singing along thinking nothing of it because I am an adult. A married woman. However, my [then] six year old had heard these lyrics so often already, she began singing along. That’s when I had to consider if i should stop listening to country music around my kids. Not because it's all bad -- don't get me wrong, there are plenty that are good. But because of the mature themes many carried.
That particular song is full of messages that are not something I want my young daughter to go out and imitate. The music was simply too mature for her. She was six. Not sixteen.
When we allow our children to listen to this kind of music, are we condoning the behavior by giving the media our “stamp of approval”?
We need to use discretion when allowing media into our children’s lives — even our media. What we watch as adults around our young children has a great impact on them as well. I don’t necessarily mean that we can never watch a movie that our children cannot watch. Some movies simply have some material not suitable for young children. But there is a vast difference between age-appropriate and inappropriate.
If you want to shape your daughter’s future, you have to mold the present.
For His Glory,
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