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Welcome Summer!

Swimming pools. Popsicles. Flip flops. Fireworks. What’s not to love about summer? With Memorial Day on the horizon, families get ready to shed the backpacks and welcome those lazy (or not-so-lazy) days of sunny skies and beach sand in your toes. Whether your family takes it easy in summer or packs the schedule with activities from morning ‘til night, we at Faithgirlz want to encourage you to invite God to be a part of your everyday fun. Here are some ideas how:

 

Summer small group! Grab some friends and their moms to do a mother-daughter group Bible study. Spend a little time exploring the “secret power” of God’s Word in one of our made-for-tweens Bible study books, then feed the kids snacks while the moms enjoy some fellowship time of their own. It just might become your favorite activity of the summer!

 

Beach reads! Summer is a great time to catch up on all the fun reading that didn’t make the syllabus. Travel the world with Glimmer Girls, reach for the stars with Lena in the Spotlight, follow the clues in Boarding School Mysteries and so much more. Faithgirlz has captivating stories for every beachgoer, camper and rainy-day lounger in the house.

 

Explore creation! Sit down with your kids and write a list of landmarks you can visit within an hour of driving or biking distance, such as state parks, beaches, lighthouses, walking bridges and so on. At each site, take pictures of at least ten items God created. Then at the end of the summer, make a video of all your findings. Set it to music (like your favorite Christian radio song!) and post it to social media for others to enjoy.

 

The gratitude game! Think of something you enjoy about summer; for example, seashells. Then say, “I’m grateful for seashells!” Invite your kids to respond with their own statement—“I’m grateful for swimming” or “Praise God for bike rides!” Make it a game. See how many “gratitudes” you can list in a row.

 

Bible verse challenge! Encourage your kids to memorize one Bible verse per week during the summer months. Reward them for their success with a weekend getaway to celebrate a fun and faith-filled family summer.

 

From all of us at Faithgirlz, we hope you will enjoy a safe and sunny season. We’re grateful for you. And—praise the Lord for ice cream!

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How to Turn a Self-Focused Summer Around

How to turn a self-focused summer around

It doesn’t take long for our daughters (or us) to get there… completely consumed with our own comfort, entertainment, and agendas.

Our Instagram posts, Facebook pages, shopping trips, days at the pool, and Netflix binges beckon, drawing us deeper and deeper into what we want.

Sometimes it’s easier to see in our kids than in ourselves, but we all suffer from the same obsession: self.

Strangely enough, self-gratification never seems to satisfy. And that’s why we need God’s help to turn our self-focused summers (or any season) around.

Psalm 19 offers the perfect combination of resources for those of us drowning in self-absorption.

Step 1: Look up.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (v.1)

When we step out into nature, something bigger than us, we remember how small we are. Whether we’re looking at mountains, the ocean, a prairie, or the sky, we find ourselves in awe of God’s grandeur. And that’s healthy.

The Step 1 Challenge: Take your daughter outside to a place where both of you are faced with God’s bigness and your smallness. Let it soak into both of you. Ignore your phones. Just let the heavens and surroundings proclaim God’s glory!

Step 2: Look into God’s Word.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. (v.7)

Our souls thirst for Living Water. As daughters of the King, we need His Word to revive us. Yet so often we try to quench that thirst with the sugary, carbonated “beverages” of the world.

Scripture is “sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb,” and “by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward” (v.10b-11a).

The Step 2 Challenge: Read Psalm 19 with your daughter. Talk together about what it means to have your souls revived by God’s Word. Ask your daughter what kind of wisdom she thinks she needs. Discuss the rewards mentioned in verse 11, and how the law of the Lord is perfect (v.7).

Step 3: Look inside yourself.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (v. 14)

When we’ve seen God’s glory in nature and then see His wisdom and the life He offers through His Word, we need to examine ourselves.

Do we like what we see? Our we so full of ourselves that we’ve forgotten Him? Have we become so self-absorbed that we don’t care about those around us?

He longs for us to get past ourselves. And when we do, everything changes. He is glorified, we are no longer stuck in a miserable cycle of self-gratification, and we’re finally able to bless those around us.

All we have to do is ask Him to change us from the inside out.

The Step 3 Challenge: Invite your Redeemer to change you. Challenge your daughter to do the same… to make a daily habit of giving your thoughts and words over to Christ.

For a bonus challenge, commit Psalm 19:14 to memory together. Post it on your mirror or refrigerator door to remind you of your commitment to think God’s thoughts and live to please Him instead of yourselves.

Or take it to the next level and memorize all of Psalm 19. Yes, it will mean a little extra time away from social media or the television, but you’ll be amazed at how refreshing it will be.

It might exactly what you need to set yourself and your daughter free from yourselves today!

 

by Jennifer Ebenhack

 

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Top 10 Summer Activities for Your Tweens

Summer-Activites-for-TweensSummer is here!

This break is something your girls have been looking forward to for months. You, on the other hand, may not look forward to summer with as much excitement. The time off requires a LOT of additional prepping and planning for parents.

There are many great resources around the web outlining fun summer activities for your girls. We’ve compiled our top 10 below!

10. Get a Job
Instill values of independence, discipline, and responsibility by encouraging your tween to work this summer. Now is a great time to help out around the house, babysit, look after a neighbor’s pets, walk dogs, wash cars, open a lemonade stand, sell handmade crafts – or anything else your enterprising young girls can think of!

9. Update A Room
As our girls transition from one grade to the next, we have to accept that they are growing up! Does their room reflect their maturing taste? If not – head over to Pinterest and look for new room inspirations for your girls. Need a starting place? Check out our Redo Your Room board. If you want even more inspiration – check out our Redo Your Room book!

8. Plan Outdoor Movie Nights
Get together with neighbors and work to set up a projector, speakers and family-friendly movie. Really amp up the space with comfy seating, string lights and popcorn! Click for more creative ways to dress up the space!

outdoor movie

7. Volunteer
What causes are important to your family? Reach out to organizations in your area to inquire about opportunities for your girls to serve. Animal shelters and food banks often have tasks for younger volunteers. Through their service, your girls will learn valuable lessons of sacrifice, humility and caring for others.

6. Host a Board Game Tourny
Help your faithgirlz plan a fun-filled day at home. (This is a great option if there are a lot of rainy days in the forecast.) If you don’t have a huge collection of board games, ask friends to bring over one or two of their favorites. Be sure everyone knows the rules for each game and then roll the dice or pick a card to see who gets to select the first game.  For bonus points: If your girls are especially creative – encourage them to create their own game!

Game Pieces

5. Be a Tourist in Your Own Town
What is one thing you’ve always wanted to see in your area? Plan a quick day trip or outing to visit a unique landmark, attraction or eatery. Take this idea to the next level by dressing up as tacky tourists! Fanny packs required.

4. Pick a Book to Read Together – and take time to talk about it!
We are BIG advocates of summer reading… and so is our spokesperson Natalie Grant! Together, we’ve developed a great list of Faithgirlz! titles to recommend for your tween. We encourage you to pick one or two to read with your girls. These books are great conversation starters and can lead to some incredible chats about faith. Read up on Natalie’s summer reading suggestions here!

natalie-grant-faithgirlz-summer-reading

3. Create and Bury a Time Capsule
Identify special mementos that will help your faithgirl remember 2015. Include items to represent her best friend, secret crush (if she has one!) and her favorite Bible verse, class, band, song, sport to play, sport to watch, book, movie, actor and actress! Did you take a trip this year? Include a souvenir or ticket to remember a special family vacation or outing. Have fun with it – and only peek if she says it is okay!

2. Set Up Camp
Love the outdoors? Take an afternoon to create a campsite in your backyard. Grab some sleeping bags and enjoy a night out under the stars! Don’t have a tent? No worries! Get creative with blankets and sheets to make a colorful retreat. The benefits of camping at home? You have quick access to certain amenities (like a bathroom & kitchen) if you aren’t ready for the complete experience. Still seem like a stretch? If your girls aren’t the outdoorsy type – like mine – create a camp of sorts inside!

sheet-tent

1. Get Moving
Get your girls off the couch! Summer is a great time to try new activities. Gather all the necessary safety gear and encourage your faithgirlz to meet their friends for a bike ride, test out their roller blades, take a swim, paddle board or canoe on a nearby lake… anything to stay active (and tear them away from spending all summer on the computer or binge watching TV shows on Netflix). Just be sure to set parameters on where they can go, when to be back and who they can go with, etc. Use these ideas to give your girls a memorable, safe and FUN summer!

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