The other day, I was writing a lesson I was to give at a mother/daughter banquet. In preparing the lesson I decided I would ask my own daughter what she perceived to be the top three things her parents did to help her—to enable her– to grow up to be a woman of faith. (Notice I did not ask her to list the top three parental “flubs” of her childhood because I am sure she could not have narrowed down that list.=)) I asked her if she would think about this and give me a call when she had time to give me this little list. It was finals week of her senior college year and she said, “Oh mom, I’m so busy. Couldn’t I just tell you right now, real quick?” (I said she’s faithful, not necessarily sacrificial of her time when it comes to her parents.) At any rate, here’s her quick list, right off the top of her head, in the order in which she gave them.
1. Our family Bible time (we call it “story time”) every single day.
2. I always knew I could talk to you and Dad about anything.
3. Dad always gave me a great example of what to look for in a man who respects women. He showed me this every day.
I hope this gives you moms some encouragement, rather than sounding as if we think we did it all just right. We surely did not. Notice, though, that none of these has any monetary value. All of them, are investments of time and character—commodities we already have or to which we have access if we really want them.