by Kathy Becker

1. Always remember the reason your daughter was given to you: that you might raise her to glorify God.
2. Pray for wisdom to be the strong yet sensitive mother God wants you to be.  Godly mothering is not for weaklings.
3. Accept the fact that cultivating a good mother/daughter relationship will take sacrifices and difficult decisions.
4. From “babyhood,” constantly surround your daughter with the knowledge of God: God made you; God loves you; God has a plan for you; you are only free to do what God wants you to do.
5. Resist the temptation to put too much focus on the physical.  While it is important to look nice, it is more important to be nice.
6. Teach your daughter by example.  This is going to happen whether you want it to or not.  The way you respond to life’s issues is the way she will learn to respond to them.
7. Reject the attitude of the world that says life is all about me.  Life is not all about me; it’s all about God. When your daughter fully grasps this principle, she can focus on the needs of others more easily.
8. Be willing to set aside time for reading books that promote special mother/daughter relationships.  I can’t count the hours I read the Little House book series and Little Women to my girls.  Precious memories are created and honorable values are instilled during these times.
9. Continually encourage your daughter, even as a little girl, to be sensitive to what God would have her to do.  When she knows God’s will and does it, she has found the path of fulfillment.
10. Never ignore the need for appropriate discipline. A real help in encouraging us to have rules and standards for our daughters is that we are training them to be sensitive to God’s directives.  We make it so much easier for them to obey God when we teach them to obey us.
11. Cook with her! Clean with her! Sew with her! Teach her to be a worker and find joy in that work.
12. Talk, talk, talk!  We cannot afford to be non-communicative with our daughters.  I think the thing I miss most about my older girls being grown is the ongoing chatter we had as we worked around the house. That is truly blessed fellowship!
13. Instill the Scriptures in your daughter’s heart and mind from a young age.  God’s Word is powerful.  Those Scriptures that you require your daughter to learn will encourage her to follow Him and bind her heart to yours in a special way.
14. When your daughter is grown, realize she is her own person now.  Respect her spouse.  Never stop praying for her. Change your view of your daughter.  She was your little girl, but now she is grownup with all that that entails.  The memories of the growing-up years are great, but the memories still to be created will be great also.
15. Enjoy this wonderful friend!  You loved her as a baby, a little girl, a young lady; and now you get to enjoy her as a friend.  The miles may separate you, but nothing can break that special bond that you share.