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Beautiful!: A vision for our daughters


"Beautiful!"

When I'm at peace, when life is good, I look at my daughters and think, "Beautiful!" And I want to communicate that belief to them in such a way that strengthens them, empowers them. I want to give them a baseline of confidence in who they already are in God's eyes.

Our memory verse this week is a great way to convey to them what true beauty is and where it comes from:



"Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised." - Proverbs 31:30



Truly beautiful women, women who should be praised, are those who fear God. But what does that mean? People ask, "God is love, why should I fear Him if He is love?" It is difficult to comprehend. And Scripture even seems to contradict itself on this topic:



"Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, 'You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.' Moses said to the people, 'Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.'" - Exodus 20:18-20


Do not fear God. Instead, let the fear of God be before you. What?!

And maybe that's a good place to start with my daughters this week: Show them God's awesome power by telling the story of Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19:10-19). Explain what an awesome and fearful thing it is to approach the throne of God. He is not to be trifled with, and yet we are invited to approach him with confidence (Heb. 4:16). How can that be? How can he inspire both fear and confidence? In Jesus Christ we will find the answer (Heb. 4:14-15).
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Comments

Tiffany said…
The tearing of the curtain (as an English major who loves symbolism)is one of my favorite images in scripture. Through this, the same God who put Job in his place can meet with me about daily life. Encouraging thoughts, Chris.
www.namastechild.blogspot.com
July 17, 2007 at 12:01 PM
bluggier said…
I just found the blog and will put it in my favorites. I hope July 9 won't be your last blog.

JAY
July 20, 2007 at 7:28 PM
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