PK Blessing Ceremony

My daughter and I just completed a two-year Bible study with a group of like-minded moms and daughters (mostly from our kids' school) using The Princess and the Kiss  study guide.  This program helped us teach our girls Godly virtues and show them their infinite worth in Christ.  When they understand how valuable they are to God who paid the ultimate price for them, receive a glimpse of just how precious they are to Him, and know that they belong to God alone, then they can accept our challenge to guard their hearts and to keep themselves pure in mind, heart, and body.  Purity flows out of a vibrant, living, growing relationship with Christ and out of a clear understanding of one's own intrinsic value in Him.

Pastor Chad

This past weekend we held the final blessing ceremony.  Families and close friends came to celebrate and pray blessings over our daughters. One of our moms helps her husband pastor a church plant in the area. They graciously offered their church facility, and her husband delivered a mini sermon based on 1 Corinthians 13. 

His sweet wife welcomed everyone and prayed fervently, and then our founder/leader, Liz, introduced the study and summarized the key themes and principles taught. Another mom in our group beautifully read The Princess and the Kiss book for the crowd.

Two mom/daughter pairs shared what the group has meant to them and their key takeaways. Last time my daughter shared during a testimony time, she embarrassed me, so I asked her to let me proof her speech before she delivered it.  She shared some personal things I never knew, so that was humbling and sad for me to learn too late, but at least she is sharing with me now.  I've spoken before hundreds of people, Hyundai, Konica, and other large business owners and execs in Japan, executive boards in Canada, the US, and Mexico, and city councils; I've taught professional development courses for business professionals in multiple states; I've even been interviewed on TV news programs, once without any notice at all while on location for a consulting appointment, but I wasn't nearly as nervous at those venues as I felt before sharing a simple message with these moms, daughters, and close family members.  Perhaps the nerves were due to being so emotionally attached, just as surgeons are not allowed to operate on their own family members.  I think it went fine, though.
I love how fearless my daughter is on any sort of stage, unlike her mom.

Ann Voskamp summed up my entire "speech" this morning in only three lines:

"Girls rival each other. Women revive each other.
Girls impale each other. Women empower each other.
Girls compare each other. Women champion each other."

I'm thankful for the wise women in my life.

Each girl received the last charm representing a pure heart for her PK charm pillow.  Then the moms prayed blessings over them and entire families came up to lay hands on them and pray.    

My daughter, one of the girls from the study, and I prepared a slide show that played on the side screens throughout the ceremony. It was amazing to see in those pictures how much these girls have grown and matured in just two years.  From the beginning to the end of the slideshow, we parents our girls become young women. while the girls giggled at all the fun memories.  Then we feasted on fresh fruit, breakfast casseroles, and muffins.  

Nana and Pops and "Grandma Susan" attended the celebration as well.  What a blessing they are!  Then Mom planted flowers for me according to our yearly birthday tradition while our daughter raced off to a AAU basketball tournament two hours away. 

I'm glad we were able to commemorate this stage of her life in a way that calls her to take responsibility and to seek the Lord for herself.

I love each one of these young ladies as my own daughter, and it has been a wonderful honor to teach and love them (and to be taught and loved back by them) while watching them grow in knowledge, wisdom, and love for God. Be encouraged, the world may be a dark and scary place, but His light still shines, and these torchbearers will be holding it up high long after we are gone.

Our girls at the end of the ceremony

"Mugshot" faces

Silly poses

I came across a quote by a young but exceedingly wise wife & mom to at least 8 children which seemed so apropos following the completion of our two year mother/daughter Bible study focusing on purity of heart, mind, soul, and body. There are a lot of misconceptions outside the Christian faith and even through extreme movements (which I call "ditches") within that see our faith as a legalistic system of do's and don't's instead of as the most fulfilling and exhilarating personal relationship imaginable with the Creator, Sustainer, Savior, and Lord over all. True purity is found in...

"Real and deep communion with Jesus Christ that penetrates past all externals – a relationship with Him that is greater than any fluffy methods promising less broken hearts and more physical “purity.” If you are in real communion with Jesus Christ, it’s a relationship that cuts deep to the heart, where true purity either is, or isn’t.

God is after our hearts. He is after the hearts of our children. Our priority should be to point them to Christ and to live Christ-filled, unconditional, unjudging lives before them. If our heart is His, He will lead us, strengthen us, and keep us.

A heart of true purity pours out of communion with Christ – not from commitments to relationship methods, or parental control. Point (and live out authentic lives) your children, young adults to Christ and not to some form of relationship or set of standards. Keep Christ the center, the focus, the main thing. Your Everything.

Live HIM, not just some lifestyle." - Alyssa Ann Welch

I am reminded of a male friend of mine has lived out a genuine life of faith in Christ in a foreign country where nationalized brothels are provided for men because it is assumed that men cannot control their urges (whereas women are expected and required to practice such self control). For decades, he has stood out to the locals who could not understand how he could exhibit such self control. He conducted himself in purity not just bodily, but also in speech and thought, for His heart is constantly consumed with Christ. We are each hopelessly wicked apart from Christ, but when He has our hearts, His purity flows out of us.