Walking to adulthood...

A Father Daughter journey to adulthood

Last night began a journey for my daughter and me. I’m going to keep a journal of sorts here on this blog, so you guys can glean what wisdom you can, and maybe duplicate it in your own children.

You’ll need a little background…

In September of 2007, my church had a wonderful guest speaker named Ed Tandy McGlasson. “Big Ed” was a pro football player who now pastors a church in California and who has a very needed and blessed ministry teaching dads how to do the job better.

He teaches about our images of God as our Daddy and how that translates itself into our own parenting skills and into our relationship with God.

One of the keystones to Ed’s teaching is the pronouncement of adulthood and blessing on our kids as they reach the threshold. Sort of a “Christian Bar Mitzvah” of sorts.

So last night, Morgan and I began our journey together. In May she turns 14 and while she is very grown-up already, I wanted to wait until then to do this because I had a slightly different model in mind.

For the next five months—until her birthday—Morgan and I are doing a weekly bible study on the topics that face a young girl as she becomes a young woman. What does the Bible say a godly woman looks like? How does she resist the worlds urging to become a woman as they define it, and stay on course to be the woman God describes?  What is godliness really? What does adulthood really look like and how do I know I’ve gotten there? What is real purity? Who am I in God’s plan and how do I become that person?

These are the questions (among many others) that face a kid at this age. I know I faced them and nobody walked me through to the answers. Nobody taught me how to really study the Bible so I’d be equipped to find my own answers instead of forever being dependent on the answers of others so I am teaching her Inductive Bible study techniques.

The Bible tells us that children are like arrows. Dads…That makes us archers. In biblical days the archer made his own arrows. He found the shaft, worked it until it was straight and true, honed a point and installed it on the shaft, found just the right fletching so it would fly straight, and when he was finished building it, he marked it as his own, so anyone finding it would know who had set it to flight.

Then he found its target and sent it on its way…

That will be the hard part. Part of this five month study will be finding Morgan’s target and then beginning that final countdown to the day when God whispers in my ear “That’s her mark…let her fly” . It will be hard and bittersweet and I want her to be ready.

This journey is the first big step toward that day. I invite all you dad’s…divorced or not…to come with us as I chronicle it here. I hope you’ll give lots of input as well…I can use the wisdom.

Day one was last night with a study of Proverbs 31—the description of a godly woman.

Day two dawns to find a dad with a huge challenge ahead…and a daughter worth the work it will take.