If you're a dad and are flummoxed by the hype around the Twilight series, you're not alone. Many guys just don't get it. Beyond the obvious appeal of good-looking guys, what is it about this series that has girls---and adult women---flocking to the theaters, premieres, and chat rooms? What can you as a dad learn from this phenomenon?

1. Your daughter wants you to fight for her. It's just the way girls (of all ages) are created. We want to know that we are worth the fight. One of the characters, Jacob (the werewolf) says, "I will fight for you until your heart stops beating." We as girls crave that sense of value, that someone cares enough for us to fight for us. We long to know that someone will fight for the things that are competition in our lives, to win our hearts.

Here's a tough question to answer: Does your daughter know you will fight for her? Does she know, really know, that you think she is worth the risk? Do you fight for her heart by your words and actions? Do you ask to spend time with her? Do you challenge her in the things she gives her heart away to? Or have you abdicated your parenting responsibility to your wife, the school, or the church?

2. Your daughter wants you to love her more than anything. Edward, Bela's vampire hearthrob, says, "I promise to love you every moment forever." What woman doesn't want to hear that? What girl doesn't want to know that she is more cherished than anything else in the world? In a culture that treats girls as disposable items to be used and discarded, girls desperately want to know that they are loved, really loved.

Here's another tough question: Does your daughter know that you love her more than anything (besides God and your spouse, of course)? Or does she feel like she competes for your love? Does she see that you treasure your job more than her? Your hobbies? Your money?

3. Your daughter wants you to guard and protect her heart. Our main protagonist Edward, makes a couple of strong statements. He says, "I'll do whatever it takes to make you safe again." He also says, "I'll protect you, no matter what."

This world is an unsafe place. Today's girls live without security. Terrorism. School shootings. Date rape. Mean girls. They need to know that there is one place where they can find safety and security. One place where they are protected.

Is your home safe? Not in terms of physical safety, although that is important. Rather, does your daughter feel emotionally secure in your home? Do your words encourage and strengthen her? Do you allow her to express her feelings without fear of being disregarded or demeaned? Does she know that you're a safe person to talk to? That you won't fly off the handle or go on a verbal tyrade?

You as a father play a critical role in the life of your daughter. Not only do you give her an example of how any man in her life should treat her, but you also give her a taste of the way the Heavenly Father feels about her.

What does your example tell her?

In anticipation of the newest LIfeWay Girls' Ministry Bible study, True Princess, we interviewed its author, Erin Davis. This is the second part of that interview.

What idols did you wrestle with as a teen? What about now?
Boys have always been an area of struggle for me. As a young woman, it was a constant temptation to put my boyfriend ahead of God in my list of priorities. Perfection has always been another idol of mine. I still have to resist the temptation to try to be the best at everything all the time. I've also wrestled with addiction to the applause of other people. That was true when I was a teenager and is still sometimes true today.

As you work with teen girls, what encourages you? Saddens you? Angers you?

I am saddened by how few of them want to be wives and mothers. Those roles seem so insignificant to them. I think we can trace this back to the "me first" mentality that "True Princess" tries to address. They don't want to be wives and mommas because they want their lives to center around their own plans, goals and desires. I want them to know God's heart for being helpers and mommas. I also don't want them to see that as an inferior calling.

I am also troubled by their lack of passion for the Word. It seems boring to most of them. I think it is impossible to grow a deep-rooted faith without heavy doses of God's Word. I think it's great to want to do big things for God, but it won't amount to much if you don't know His Word.

I am mad at the culture for lying to young women so often. I am mad at Satan for being so crafty and steadfast in his attacks on young women. But I also get really frustrated with the girls themselves when they choose not to walk out God's Truth in certain areas of their lives. It seems that many young women know God's Truth about topics like purity, modesty, beauty etc. but they make the choice not to live it out. That urks me sometimes.

How do adult women encourage the Diva Syndrome in teens girls?
I think many of us (myself included) live like divas a lot more than we realize. We worship our own comfort. And we put ourselves first in a thousand little ways. There is no way we can push teens to ditch the diva when we as adults are still holding on to our diva ways; girls are too sharp for that and see through that. So, we've got to be brave and allow God's Word to expose areas of entitlement in our own lives. Also, I think it's really great to point out how much God loves these girls (because He does!) but that's only half of the message. Yes, they are daughters of the King, but it's not all about them. Give them God's whole truth about who they are, who He is, and what that means for how they should live.
 

True Princess: Embracing Humility in an All-About-Me World, the latest Bible study from LifeWay Girls' Ministry, hits the shelves July 1. In anticipation of its release, we interviewed the author, Erin Davis. Stay tuned for the second part of our dialogue with her.

Who was your favorite princess as a child and why?
I've always loved Cinderella. You can't beat a good rags to riches story. Plus, I'm a sucker for any story that ends in a wedding and includes a pair of fabulous shoes.

How did you become a follower of Jesus?
When I was 15, my family visited a local church for the first time. The youth pastor invited my sister and me to join the youth group on a trip to camp they were taking the next day (he neglected to mention that it was a 17-hour road trip!). We said okay and hopped on a bus headed for Beaver Falls, PA. During the worship service the first night, I couldn't stay in my seat. When the pastor gave the altar call, I literally ran down the aisle. I gave my heart to Jesus right then and there and He's been shaking things up in my life ever since.

What was your favorite chapter to write?
I loved writing Chapter 2: "Who is Really on the Throne". That chapter focuses on Christ our King. There are some powerful descriptions of Him in Revelation 4 and Revelation 19. As I studied those passages to write the chapter, they took on new life in my heart. I realized what an awesome and capable King we serve. In contrast, I was reminded that I'm not really in charge.

What was the most painful part to write?
Chapter 3 is titled "Royalty Redefined." It takes a hard look at Jesus' example during His time here on Earth. As part of that chapter, I explored how He came to this planet, how He lived and how He died. That entire chapter made me uncomfortable. We talk about it [Jesus' earthly ministry] often in our churches, but the fact that Jesus chose to live a simple life and die a painful death just makes me squirm. He was SO radical in this way. He is the king of Kings for goodness' sake! But He never had one moment of entitlement. He never said "I don't deserve this!" He never used His unlimited power to serve Himself. When I really dug into those truths in Scripture, they shined a bright light on my own sense of entitlement. That isn't pretty.

I'm actually out of the office today, interviewing students at FUGE camps in Mississippi to see what's going on in youth culture right now. Hopefully, I'll have some interesting stuff to relate to you when I get back. But meanwhile, here's a snapshot of current culture:

Top Movies:

1. Toy Story 3, $109 mil (My coworkers said this is fantastic!)
2. The Karate Kid, $29 mil
3. The A-Team, $13.8 mil
4. Get Him to the Greek, $6.1 mil
5. Shrek Forever After, $5.5 mil
6. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, $5.3 mil
7. Killers, $5.1 mil
8. Jonah Hex, $5.1 mil
9. Iron Man 2, $2.7 mil
10. Marmaduke, $2.7 mil

Source: Box Office Mojo

Top Internet searches last week:

1. Facebook (I can’t imagine why someone would need to use a search engine to find Facebook . . .)
2. World Cup (Not surprising. Not shortage of cute guys there, so don’t be surprised if your girls are into this summer’s soccer commotion.)
3. NBA
4. Marisa Tomei
5. FIFA
6. Los Angeles Lakers
7. US Open
8. Miley Cyrus
9. Down Jones Index
10. Megan Fox

Source:  Yahoo! Buzz Index
 

Summer driving

I wasn’t aware that summer is a particularly dangerous time for young drivers. Check out this article for reasons why. Hopefully you’ll be motivated to encourage your girls to stay safe on the roads this summer.

Today's guest blogger is Miranda Canady, who works with Lily Girls Magazine (online). That group promoted "Wake Up to No Makeup", day that challenges girls to forego their Maybelline for a day. As you read the post, allow the words to sink past your intellect and into your heart. We've all heard these truths before, but somehow their familiarity keeps us from absorbing them, really absorbing them. As a leader of girls, it was a reminder to me of two things: 1. Just because you "grow up" doesn't mean the Enemy stops attacking; and 2. God still has some work to do in my heart.

Monday I spent an entire day without makeup (insert audible gasp) for Lily Girl’s Magazine’s “Wake Up to No Makeup Challenge.” Scary, right? As I got up that morning and stared long and hard into the mirror, I took notice of things I so quickly covered up. Those freckles on my nose? It must have taken God forever to keep them so close without running together. And the scar above my eyebrow? My own fault, yet completely planned and known by God. And I started to feel guilty and even a little convicted of the way I had been viewing myself.

Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's masterpiece." God uses the word “masterpiece” to describe us, but according to the Dove Global Report, women were more comfortable using the words natural or average to describe themselves.

Sometimes my biggest struggle is that I KNOW the truth of God's Word, but I don't always believe it. Some mornings I wake up and look in the mirror and think, "Ehhh..." or try on clothes in a dressing room and end up beating myself up about my lack of self control with desserts. What an insult to God! I'd be crushed if I spent time making something I thought was beautiful only to have someone say it was ugly.

The root of the problem here is not in feeling or looking good. The problem is that Satan uses insecurity about our appearance to lead us to a life of bondage, thus hindering us from doing the things God has planned for us.

In Nancy Lee DeMoss’ book, Lies Women Believe, she writes, “The fact is, if we devote our time and energy to staying fit, trim, glamorous, and youthful looking, we may achieve those objectives – for a while. But the day will come when we will regret having neglected to cultivate that inner beauty, character, and radiance that are pleasing to God and last forever.”

It’s not enough to simply know that you and I are "fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God" but truly believing it and putting it into practice. Lipstick always makes me feel like a lady and cute shoes put a little pep in my step. But those things are only temporary fixes. Jeremiah 1:5 says, "Before I made you in your mother's womb, I chose you." We don't have to worry about measuring up - that includes being pretty enough, smart enough, or even successful - God accepts us exactly as we are. I, for one, am glad.

Want an even bigger challenge than spending a day without makeup? Try matching the time you spend getting ready in the mornings with the time you spend in the Word. If you spend an hour getting ready, dedicate an hour to reading your Bible. For a wakeup call, give yourself an allotted time to get ready the next morning based on how much time you spend studying God’s word the night before. Forgot your devo and skimmed through your Bible 5 minutes before bed? Looks like you’ll be getting ready in 5 minutes the next morning!

First of all, a very big “GET WELL SOON!” to our own Pam Gibbs, who’s trying to get better before she goes on vacation.

Second, have you heard Miley Cyrus’ take on herself? Fascinating. Watch it here.

Third, it’s too hot to do much of anything outside these days, around Nashville at least. So what better to do on a hot day than go to the movies? Here are the top movies from this past weekend:

1. The Karate Kid, $56 mil
2. The A-Team, $26 mil
3. Shrek Forever After, $15.8 mil
4. Get Him to the Greek, $10.1 mil
5. Killers, $8.2 mil
6. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, $6.6 mil
7. Marmaduke, $6 mil
8. Sex and the City 2, $5.5 mil
9. Iron Man 2, $4.6 mil
10. Splice, $2.9 mil

Source: Box Office Mojo


Fourth, here are the top online music videos:

1. Justin Bieber - Eenie Meenie
2. Miley Cyrus - Can't Be Tamed
3. 3OH!3 - My First Kiss
4. Usher - OMG
5. Christina Aguilera - Not Myself Tonight
6. Ciara w/Ludacris - Ride
7. Lil Wayne - Knockout
8. Lil Wayne - Get A Life
9. Justin Bieber - Baby
10. Eminem - Not Afraid

Source: MTV.com Most Popular Videos

Fifth and finally, 2010 is now halfway over. Hard to believe, right? How’s your year been so far? I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t even remember my New Year’s resolutions and had to look them up! (And for your information, apparently, I’m not doing so well with my resolution for this year, which was to not talk over or interrupt people. My boyfriend told me two nights ago that I was frustrating him by talking over him. Whoops. Glad I’m revisiting the resolution!) I’m amazed how quickly time flies. I know this sounds a lot like my blog post from last week. Maybe you feel the same way. Maybe you don’t. But here’s my plan for the latter part of this particular year: stop talking over people. Spend more time in prayer. (Feeling a little dry in that area lately.) Call my mom more.

Here’s to making the last half of 2010 even better than the first!

It was really one of the dumbest arguments ever. My daughter misplaced a key and it was one of those "straws that broke the camel's back" moments when everything seemed to hinge on that key. Not really, but I sure acted like it did. Not one of my best parenting moments.

Over the course of several hours we discussed the importance of being responsible and all the "horrible" things that could happen if that key got into the wrong hands. Maybe it is because we've been harping on her at home about being responsible...maybe it is because she didn't tell me the key was lost for a few days after losing it because she forgot...maybe it is knowing she will be driving in less than six months and I don't want to deal with lost keys on a weekly basis...maybe it is because my parents nagged me about being responsible--but in the end, what are the chances that the "oh so important key" will get in the wrong hands? One in a billion?

Without hesitation she did the responsible thing letting the right people know the key was lost and doing what had to be done for a replacement. And in the end she wrote me a two-page note that just about broke my heart.

The whole time I was frustrated about a lost key and what appeared to be her lack of responsibility and concern, she was more worried that I would stay mad at her. She knew I was leaving the next day for a trip and did not want me to leave with our relationship in a broken state.

In the note she talked about our friend who died suddenly of a heart attack, our cousin who recently died of a brain tumor, and how she's realized that anything could happen at anytime. She's watched several friends and family members over the past year now living without their mom or dad. The reality of mortality has hit as she watches these middle school and high school friends live after the loss of a parent.

We don't talk about these losses all the time, so I never dreamed these were the thoughts she had as I left each time over the last year for a trip. In the end of the note she apologized for the lost key, the way she responded, and told me to ground her or do whatever I thought was right, but "please do not be angry or upset with me."

And that is when I thought my heart would break. Without really saying it, I realized that still more than anything she did want our relationship to be healthy and strong. In the midst of her high school attitudes and drawing away from us as she gains independence, she still wanted to be connected and at peace with us.

There are lots of things that girls are not saying. I don't know if they just expect us to know what they are thinking or don't always know how to voice their thoughts. Whatever the reason, as parents, as student workers, as girls' ministry leaders, we need to lean in to listen, to hear, to understand what is said and what is not being said.

Obviously, I am still learning. And, as always, I can use all the help I can get!

How have you seen or experienced or learned to read between the lines with the girls in your home or ministry? How do you draw out the things girls are thinking but not saying?

Girls get together in a barn. Girls drink together. Girls tell secrets. Girls fall asleep. Girls wake up. Girls find one of their friends missing. Flashforward one year. Girls are no longer friends. They've moved away. Moved apart. Made other friends. Live with the questions surrounding the disppearance of their friend.

If the basis of the show was how the girls deal with loss, with relationships, with questions, I'd be OK with it. But it seems that the writers wanted to put every possible source of teenage angst in the first episode. Here's the rundown:

Girls smoke marijuana together.

Girl makes out with boy she met ten minutes ago, only to find out the guy is her new English teacher.

Girl sees her dad kissing another women and the two (dad and daughter) share that secret.

Girls almost kiss each other (or did they? Good question....).

Girls shoplift. Girl gets caught shoplifting. Girl gets busted. Mom gets girl's charges dropped by sleeping with the arresting officer.

Those are just the scenes I remember. I thought about watching it one more time to give you more details but decided you could get the idea. The show's main characters are oversexualized and over adult-ized. When the show first started, I couldn't even tell whether the characters were actually in high school or college. (Can you tell based on the picture included in this post?)

Once again, culture presents adolescent girls a drab picture of their lives. They are doomed to be a bunch of mean girls, confused girls, rebellious girls, oversexed girls. Girls with no vision, no future, no purpose beyond their senior year or beyond their myopic perspective.

If there's a redeeming quality of this TV show, I haven't found one. But I'm not wasting another hour of my life trying to find out.

I feel old.

Maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s been all I can do to stay awake past 9 p.m. lately. Or maybe it’s that our interns have arrived for the summer, and I realized that they graduated from high school when I graduated from college. But I remember being in their shoes back when I interned here in the summer of 2005, thinking that the people I was getting to work with that summer were so much older than me. Great. Now I am the old one.

The weird thing is, I don’t feel a day past 23 in my mind. (Is that normal? At what age, dear blog readers, are you “stuck,” in terms of how old you feel?) But I am older than 23. And I can’t get past how quickly time passes. I am constantly commenting on how quickly a day, a week, or a year passed. Granted, I have my slow days in there sometimes, but on the whole, I am constantly amazed at how quickly my life seems to be passing. Wasn’t it just yesterday that I was crying over being sent to detention for leaving out a two-question section in my homework in fifth grade? Um, no, that was 15 YEARS ago. (And boy, was that teacher strict!)
 

I think our inability to grasp the steady march of time points to our eternal nature, that part of us that wasn’t meant to have to measure days or months or years. (Which is maybe why I love vacation so much?) And I don’t know about you, but there are just some days when I’m ready to get to heaven and forget about time. I always loved that last verse from the hymn “Amazing Grace,” “When we've been here ten thousand years / Bright shining as the sun / We've no less days to sing God's praise / Than when we've first begun.” Amen.

But I know you likely didn’t stop by the blog today to hear me talk about getting older because that can be depressing. (But thanks for hanging in there with me!) So here are the goods:
 

Top Ten Movies:

1. Shrek Forever After, $25.3 mil
2. Get Him to the Greek, $17.4 mil (This one looks like a real family-friendly film. NOT.)
3. Killers, $16.1 mil (I’m hoping to see this one soon. I’ll let you know...)
4. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, $13.9 mil
5. Sex and the City 2, $12.7 mil
6. Marmaduke, $11.3 mil
7. Iron Man 2, $7.8 mil
8. Splice, $7.5 mil (Have you SEEN this creature? Scary!)
9. Robin Hood, $5.1 mil
10. Letters to Juliet, $3 mil

Source: Box Office Mojo

Top Downloaded Songs:

   1. Katy Perry - California Gurls
   2. Usher - OMG
   3. B.o.B. - Airplanes
   4. Travie McCoy - Billionaire
   5. Ke$ha - Your Love Is My Drug
   6. Eminem - Not Afraid
   7. Black Eyed Peas - Rock That Body
   8. Lady Gaga – Alejandro (Alright, does anyone else think Gaga totally ripped off Ace of Base's sound with this one? Or am I the only one who wore out that cassette tape in 1994 before my mom heard it and told me I couldn’t listen to it anymore?)
   9. Drake - Miss Me
  10. La Roux - Bulletproof
 

Source: iTunes

One of the fun parts of my job is to hear stories about how people are taking the resources we've offered and are tweaking them and using them to fit their particular situation. It's cool to see the creativity of God's people as they take an idea and run with it to apply it for themselves. And it's fun to watch how God works.

This Spring, we released a Bible study/mentoring Bible study called Table for Two: Doing Life and Savoring Scripture together. One group of women decided to take the Titus 2 call to heart—within their own family. They've gotten the women in their family together—aunts, moms, daughters, sisters, granddaughters, cousins—and are working through Table for Two together.

What a cool idea.

A whole family studying the same theme for a week. Learning together. Sharing stories. Laughing. Praying for each other and with each other. Holding each other accountable. A biological family living out what it means to be in the family of God. With some chocolate mixed in there somewhere.

It just doesn't get much better than that.

Sometimes it’s the little things that bring me back to reality.

This week, it was the Miley Cyrus video based on her song, “Can’t Be Tamed.”

I’m not on a crusade against Miley Cyrus or the choices she has made. I’m not griping at her parents for allowing such a sexualized video that cheapens her worth and makes her nothing more than a Madonna knock-off.

I’m on a rampage against something much larger—the enemy of girls.

Our enemy. Satan.

This video reminded me again that we are in a war.

We are in an knock-down, drag-out, endless (or seemingly) battle against the Father of Lies, the devil. His goal is simple: to kill, steal, and destroy the hearts, minds, and souls of girls (John 10:10). He wants nothing more than to destroy the life (and the potential) of every girl. History tells us this:

“The story of the treatment of women down through the ages is not a noble history. It has noble moments in it, to be sure, but taken as a whole, women have endured what seems to be a special hatred ever since we left Eden.” (John and Staci Eldredge, Captivating, p. 80)

And that special hatred continues to this day. The weapons may have become more vast and varied throughout history, but the goal is the same: destroy.

“It is simply to say that no explanation for the assault upon Eve and her daughters is sufficient unless it opens our eyes to the Prince of Darkness and his special hatred of femininity. Turn your attention…to the events that took place in the Garden of Eden. Notice—who does the Evil One go after? Who does Satan single out for his move against the human race? He could have chosen Adam…but he didn’t. Satan went after Eve. He set his sights on her. “ (Ibid, p. 82-83)

…Eve incarnates the Beauty of God and she gives life to the world. Satan’s bitter heart cannot bear it. He assaults her with a special hatred. History removes any doubt about this. (Ibid, p. 85)

It’s easy for me to become distracted in ministry to girls: Meetings. Budgets. Mean girls. Drama between moms. Disagreements with staff. If I’m not careful, I can get so distracted by this stuff that I make those the priority of ministry. I focus so much on junk at the fringes that I forget the mission:

To be an instrument that God can use to rescue girls. To stand in the gap with the Word of God in one hand while the other hand reaches out to a generation of girls desperate for help and hope. To offer girls love and grace and forgiveness and to encourage and challenge them to embrace the life God wants for them. We in girls' ministry are called to fight for the hearts of girls. We are called to stand on the front lines and proclaim that to the enemy that he cannot have them. We are called to fight with God's weapons and declare His victory.

Satan holds captive them by whatever weapon that works best: fear, confusion, alcohol, guilt, body image, generational sin, perfectionism, legalism, loneliness.

He is completely committed to their destruction.

The good news is that I serve a God who is completely committed to their rescue.

I heard a statement the other day that has resonated deeply with me:

We’ve moralized our children to death. And they’re sick of hearing it.

In one sentence, a single person summed up the problem with many of our churches, ministries, families, and even personal lives.

We’re teaching morality instead of making much of Jesus.

And as a result, we’re raising a generations of students who are left scratching their heads, wondering silently, “isn’t there something more?” They may not be able to articulate their confusion and disappointment in such succinct terms, but their lives bear testimony that we have fallen short in showing them what life is all about—a relationship with Jesus that transforms every fiber of their lives.

That’s why there’s no difference between the behavior of Christian kids and non-Christian kids. We’ve given them a set of do’s and don’ts and nothing else. We’ve told them to act better, talk better, dress better. We were so busy making sure that they understood the right thing to do that we forgot to communicate the reason behind it all.

The furious love of God.

Think about your own ministry, wherever your sphere of influence with teens, whatever gender. What are you teaching them overtly or covertly? When they’ve left your ministry, what are they leaving with? If they can recite the Ten Commandments (which most can’t, by the way), but they do not understand that the God who set forth those commands desperately desires a relationship with them, that His passion is their heart, that He aches and longs for them to talk to Him, then they’re left with nothing.

Why do we focus so much on morality? Because it’s easy to measure. If a girl dresses modestly, then we figure she’s on the right road. If a girl doesn’t send a sexually explicit message to her boyfriend, then we as leaders have done our job, right? Wrong.

When we reduce the gospel to morality, we’ve cheapened the gospel. We’ve reduced God Almighty to two stone tablets on a courthouse wall somewhere in Georgia. We’ve made a relationship with God a mockery, far less than what it truly is: a roller coaster ride, a glorious uproarious adventure, a love affair of epic proportions.

I’m not saying that we don’t teach students the story of the Good Samaritan and talk about the need to love others. But I am saying that we need to teach the story of the Good Samaritan in context of the larger Story, the story of God coming to us in our deepest need and bandaging our wounds and paying the price for our healing.

What would happen in your ministry—maybe in your own life or ministry—if you focused solely on a relationship with God? What if, for a single month (or even a single day), you said nothing about witnessing, dressing modestly, obeying your parents, cheating, language, or sexting? If instead, you fed them (or yourself) nothing but Jesus.

Not the lame Jesus we’ve presented to them. But the Jesus who turned the temple upside down because people had made it difficult to come to God. The Jesus who called the most religious people “white washed tombs” because those very people were misrepresenting Him and had taking all the passion out of a relationship with Him? The Jesus who laughed with children. Who turned water into wine so a party could keep going. The Jesus who offered grace to prostitutes. The Jesus who challenged His followers to give up their lives to find life. The Jesus who drew attention by writing in the sand so that a woman caught in the act of adultery could find a shred of dignity and grace.

I’m willing to bet that things would change. Not immediately. Maybe not even in the next year. But when you and I begin to ooze Jesus instead of a morality-based ministry, we’ll discover that this undiluted gospel is EXACTLY what our students have been waiting for all along.

Hey friends! It’s been awhile . . . but never fear, your trusty culture update is here! (A little late, however. My apologies!)

Top Movies this week:

1. Shrek Forever After, $55.7 mil
2. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, $37.8 mil (according to the senior girls I was on vacation with last week, this was unexpectedly good, which was not what I expected to hear from them)
3. Sex and the City 2, $37.1 mil
4. Iron Man 2, $20.6 mil
5. Robin Hood, $13.6 mil
6. Letters to Juliet, $7.3 mil (great girls’ night out movie)
7. Just Wright, $2.7 mil
8. Date Night, $2.3 mil
9. MacGruber, $1.9 mil (Why couldn’t they have chosen a different, less-stupid SNL skit to make a full-length movie out of? I won’t be seeing this one.)
10. How to Train Your Dragon, $1.5 mil

Top songs on the radio

1. Taio Cruz - Break Your Heart
2. Ke$ha - Your Love Is My Drug
3. B.o.B. - Nothin' On You
4. Usher - OMG
5. Lady Gaga - Alejandro
6. B.o.B. - Airplanes
7. Train - Hey, Soul Sister (I am a fan of this song. It's infectious, in a good way!)
8. Rihanna - Rude Boy
9. Jason DeRulo - In My Head
10. Katy Perry - California Gurls (Dumbest. Song. Ever. —or at least in the runnings for that title)

Summer!

Personally, I’m excited because my favorite show has started, “So You Think You Can Dance.” That means summer is officially here! Speaking of summer, I just got back from a week at the beach. And do you know what I saw a lot of? Surfer shirts. Instead of wearing a skimpy top, girls and women were wearing the form-fitting, short-sleeved shirts that surfers wear. I’m sure it was an effort to avoid sunburn, but it’s also an easy (and breathable) way to cover up at the beach (which my back would have appreciated!). My roommate and I were discussing the trend, and she remarked that it’s as if bathing suits are coming full circle to the ones worn at the turn of the century. For some folks, the dangers of the sun are prompting a return to modesty. (And swimsuits as cute as these and these don’t hurt either.) Since summer is upon us, and you’ll likely be taking your girls somewhere this summer that involves bathing suits and all the issues that go along with them, take our poll to let us know how you cope.

I don't know about you, but I don't need just another thing on my list. Time is valuable and I don't want to waste a moment or a weekend on something that is simply a good thing to do. Currently in my life when I look at options, I look at three categories-good, better, and best. I want my time spent intentionally on the best.

Those were my thoughts yesterday in the midst of a brainstorming meeting as we were planning our annual Girls' Ministry Conference set for February 25-26, 2011. What will make this conference for high school girls and girls' ministry leaders the best? The best value? The best ministry? The best leadership training? The best for connecting? The best for spiritual growth? The best for churches? the best for reaching and ministering to girls outside of the church walls? The best for God's kingdom?

Our excitement built as we discussed the input and evaluations from about 200 leaders and girls who attended our first Girls' Ministry Forum in February earlier this year. Great and fresh ideas surfaced. We are looking forward to offering break-outs that will strengthen and equip leaders, as well as, offering break-outs that encourage and refresh all of us spiritually.

We are still tweaking details, but currently looking to provide break-outs on relevant topics such as homosexuality, pornography, and social media, and their impact on girls and girls' ministry. There will also be break-outs providing times of spiritual growth focused on prayer, living from your strengths and giftedness, and discipleship. We want to provide the high school girls with options that help them focus on leadership and/or spiritual development and growth. And what girl wouldn't want to learn more about conflict resolution in "Fight like a Girl!"

We will have more details coming in the months ahead about this Girls' Ministry Conference, but I wanted to let you know our goal is for the best. And do you know how I know it will be the best? Because we started our time together with Exodus 33. Just read Exodus 33:12-17 to get the main focus that we discussed and prayed about for this Girls' Ministry Conference.

"If Your presence does not go," Moses responded to Him, "don't make us go up from here" (Ex. 33:15).

We are not taking a step or moving forward without knowing that God is in it. If God is not going before us in every detail of this Girls' Ministry Conference, it may be good, but it won't be the best. Without His presence this girls' ministry conference or anything else that might take our time and attention just isn't worth it.

Although registration doesn't begin until August 1, I've already put this Girls' Ministry Conference on my calendar and not just because I have to. As I fill my calendar for 2011 I want my time spent on things of value. I am skipping over the good options. I am moving past the better options. Instead, I am intentionally looking for what is the best for my relationship with God and the best for my relationships with others. And based on my experience from the Girls' Ministry Forum in February, I know this Girls' Ministry Conference will be worth it.