Broken Dreams
All of us have dreams that are broken. For me, the dream of having a large family was one of those broken dreams. I loved being pregnant and loved being a mom. After divorcing when both my sons were under four, I was sure God had it in the plan for me to remarry and have more children.
However, I was also determined to be content with the two beautiful gifts He had given me the privilege of raising. I reveled in being in the MOB (mom of boys that is!), even adding a step son to the mix many years later.
Getting remarried older, we entered fostering as a family ministry. Adoption was not necessarily on our radar, but it was on God’s radar. In the end we only fostered our daughter and when we received her into our home, we promised to be an adoptive resource for her.
I was reminded of this verse as God gave me the unexpected gift of a daughter.
“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten….
You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.
Joel 2:26-27
Not to take that scripture out of context, this quote by Spurgeon sheds light on the meaning.
You cannot have back your time; but there is a strange and wonderful way in which God can give back to you the wasted blessings, the unripened fruits of years over which you mourned. The fruits of wasted years may yet be yours.
God restores. God works wonders for us.
A New Path
Raising a daughter was definitely a new path for me. Years before, God had given me a framework that I prayed for each of our sons concerning their future. For the first few years, our daughter’s past trauma was often so forefront that praying for the day was enough.
However, she had now blossomed in so many ways, and God laid it on my heart to begin to pray for our beautiful daughter’s future.
A Prayer for Daughters
As I was thinking about what that framework would look like, I happened to be reading through Acts. Acts 16 tells us about Lydia. What is written about Lydia reminds me of the wife described in Proverbs 31.
I appreciate that there are two representations of women: a single woman and a married woman. The overlaps from Lydia’s account and the Proverbs 31 woman create the framework for the prayer for daughters.
For our daughters’ futures, I pray that they are in the “in crowd”.
Independent & Industrious
Intrinsic Worth
Influence
Intimate Relationship with God
Integrity of Character
Recommended Resources for Girls
Brio Magazine by Focus on the Family – for late tween and teenage girls. My daughter runs to her room to read her new issue.
As I was searching for a way to use my small crop of butternut squash, I came across this website FoodFaithFitness. I appreciate the incorporation of food and faith. We are dimensional beings and when we neglect one part of body, soul, or spirit, another part suffers.
I will be perusing this website! They have ten categories including Paleo which is the way I feel healthiest eating.