Raising Our Precious Daughters...the Corner Stones...

"that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace."
Psalm 144:12

For you Mom's out there with daughters...I would like to humbly share something with you...

When I set out to raise my daughter, my thoughts were to give her everything I never had...and so, I began to buy her things, dress her up etc...I wanted her to have the perfect childhood.

This was such a mistake. Thankfully, over time, I yielded myself over to the Lord and His leading, and got a brand new direction--a biblical one.

We had our bumps in the road, but God has been gracious, and has shown us mercy!

In the day and age that we live in, we have to raise our dear daughters with biblical purpose, conviction, and care. The world that we live in wants to turn them into men! Sadly, even the modern day church has let "women's lib" in it's doors!
Now, our family has personally suffered some persecution for choosing to raise our daughter to be a feminine young lady, training to be a keeper at home, under the protection of her father. So, I'm not saying that it is easy to do what is right. (A lot of the persecution we have gotten has been from other Christians).
But we must be committed to raising our daughters according to the Word-not the world.

Here are some thoughts I found when reading about the biblical raising of daughters.

"Daughters unite families as corner stones join walls together, and at the same time they adorn them as polished stones - garnish the structure into which they are builded."
"That our daughters may be as corners stones, etc.. One might perhaps at the first glance have expected that the daughters of a household would be as the graceful ornament of the clustering foliage or the fruit bearing tree, and the sons as the cornerstones upholding the weight and burden of the building, and yet it is the reverse here.
And I think one may read the love and tenderness of the Lord in this apparently casual but intended expression,and that he meant the nations of the earth to know and understand how much of their happiness, their strength,and their security was dependent on the female children of the family." Barton Bouchier

Matthew Henry's Commentary:
It is no less desirable to see our daughters as corner-stones, or corner-pillars, polished after the similitude of a palace, or temple. By daughters families are united and connected, to their mutual strength, as the parts of a building are by the corner-stones; and when they are graceful and beautiful both in body and mind they are then polished after the similitude of a nice and curious structure. When we see our daughters well-established and stayed with wisdom and discretion, as corner-stones are fastened in the building,—when we see them by faith united to Christ, as the Chief Corner-stone, adorned with the graces of God's Spirit, which are the polishing of that which is naturally rough, and become women professing godliness,—when we see them purified and consecrated to God as living temples, we think ourselves happy in them.

Do you see the importance here? These lovely daughters of ours are not mere ornaments of the home. They must be raised to be strong and purposeful!
God wants them to be strong and beautiful, so that they will be useful to their husbands, homes, and the society that they live in.

It has been our experience that when people hear that we are raising our daughter to be a "keeper at home" they immediately think that it is a waste.
What wrong thinking!
In Titus 2:4-5 it tells us what we older women (Moms) are to do...
That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

If our daughters are going to be ready to do these things, they must be taught at home. God has ordained this occupation-it's the only one mentioned. And so, it's importance should not be under-estimated, nor under-valued.

Just like we had to teach them good manners, doing their chores, and anything else we felt was a worthwhile accomplishment, we must also purpose to teach them this!

You know that anything worthwhile takes hard work, goal setting, and perseverance...and this is no different.

May God make us wise, give us strength for the task ahead, and lead us in His Way.