Moms of tween girls (7-12) this is for you!

Too late for me to benefit from a "tween" group because I'm 13.

But my parents are unbelievers, and I was never told the Christian view of beauty, the true meaning of marriage, of sex, or gender roles. It's good that there are people to help guide girls to a Christian view of all this before the world has imposed it's own version of things.

But that should begin in the home, with parents, from infancy! I don't think the "purity pledges" and other programs can make up for the failure of moms and dads to teach and set an example in the home.

How 'bout some classes for parents, and future parents, about the truth and how to instill it in children at home?

~Penny, new Christian, 13 years old, still a virgin

 

Penny, that would ideally be great, except parents are adults with the right to make their own decisions. Even with unbelievers, I don't think the majority want their children to do wrong, but you can't force a Christian moral code on them if they don't believe in it.

Teens and kids also have to make their own choices. Nobody can honestly force another human into believing something, no matter what their age. Maybe we can make our children look and dress a certain way, or scare them into behaving a certain way, but who wants to do that? It has to come from the heart, and you just can't force a heart to believe.

I know it sounds a little weird, but even with parents who do the wrong thing or don't teach good values to their children, those children still end up hearing the truth somewhere along the way! They pick up a book, or they see it modeled by someone else. They have a choice on whether to accept it from the other source or not.

Granted, it is probably more difficult for those children to accept it when it's not happening in their own home, but it still is their choice and ultimately, their own responsibility. In fact, it seems that those who accept something "better" despite not being surrounded with it at home are very strong people and not fake, not just doing it grudgingly because their parents expect them to, like you see a lot of teens do at home and then they're different outside the home.