Today's blog comes from Leslie Hudson, girls' ministry leader and speaker at First Baptist Church, Dickson, Tennessee. Get more info about her at www.lesliehudsonspeaks.com.

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A great standard of living a God-honoring life for your girls is this: no secrets.

In 2 Corinthians 4:2, Paul teaches “we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” And John teaches that, “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin,” (1 John 1:7).

Not only should we live open, secret-free lives, but we need to show our girls how to do it, as well.

My friend Mandy has mastered this perfectly. A few girls from our group had gone off to college, decided their new not-so-godly friends had much more insight into how to live, and had shared with some of our high-school girls that social drinking is okay, both morally and biblically.

One of the high-schoolers told Mandy about the conversation, and since Mandy had ministered to the older girls over several years, she invited them over for coffee. She lovingly shared that she knew what they were telling the high school girls, and then challenged them: “If you’re going to say you believe something, believe it. Tell your parents drinking is okay. Tell me to my face. Tell your little sister and tell the pastor. Because if you’re just going to secretly tell others, you don’t really believe it.”

The girls left in shock, but called her back the next day in tears. They admitted that they didn’t want to keep secrets and thanked Mandy for throwing their lives back into the light.

Girls want our encouragement and our love, but sometimes they need our very blunt instruction. Don’t be afraid to teach these young women how to live in the light--without any secrets.

Today's blog comes from James Jackson, who is the editor of Life Truths, a Sunday School curriculum for parents. He is the father of two boys, so he feels like he's crashing a slumber party when he writes for the Girls Ministry Blog. But he married a godly woman, he prays every day that his boys will eventually do the same thing, and he knows it is impossible to overestimate the importance of girls' ministry. Find out more about Life Truths Bible Study here.

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When my carpool buddy picked me up this morning, I noticed that he was more than the usual bit bleary-eyed. As we typically do, we debriefed our weekends, and I soon found out the reason for the red-eye. Two words: Black Friday. See, my friend is the father of two teenaged daughters, and they convinced their dad that the ONLY way to find what they were shopping for IN THEIR SIZE was to be in line at the mall at the stroke of midnight the day after Thanksgiving. Which, for sane people, means Thanksgiving night. 

You should know that this is the same friend who, when there was an opportunity for his daughters to be in the background of a Justin Bieber video that was shot in our town loaded them up and stayed up with them until the wee hours of the morning so they could catch a glimpse of him. 

This isn’t the world I live in. I have boys. The only time I’ve stood in line to buy something for my teenager was when the last Call of Duty game came out. I’ve never been down the pink aisle at Toys R Us. When we go to Disney World, we don’t have breakfast with the princesses.

But here is what I know about my friend. My friend knows that fathers of daughters have only a few precious years in which their daughters are chasing their dads to spend time with them. And when those years are up, fathers will spend the rest of their lives chasing them. So for my friend, Black Friday wasn’t really about finding the last size small of the cute sweater. And the Bieber video shoot wasn’t really about Justin Bieber. At least not for him. I hope. This morning in carpool, he said, “I don’t get to use the hash tag ‘bonding with my daughters’ very often. So I want to make the most of the times when I can.”

If you are a dad reading this blog, you have my props, because there probably aren’t many of you. But if you are a girl’s ministry volunteer or professional, would you consider passing this along to the dads in their ministry? Let them know their opportunities to use that particular hash tag are limited. Pray for them today, that they will make the most of them.

Today's blog comes from Suzanne Rowe, Girls' Minister at FBC, Cleveland, TN. She is creative (VERY!) and passionate about girls knowing Christ and deepening their relationship with Him to bring God all the honor and praise. Check out her blog at www.girlsforhisglory.com.
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Even though I am only 29, I did have a completely different career before becoming a Girls Minister. While I felt called to ministry during my undergrad, I didn’t know what vocational ministry really looked like for women, so before going to seminary I decided to get experience in the secular world while I prayed for more insight and direction.

With an undergraduate degree in advertising, I took my first job in Public Relations working with high-end resorts and destinations and in my first year garnered enough colorful stories to last a lifetime. That job really was perfect for me then but has also played well for me now as I think of creative ways to reach our students.

 One thing I have found vitally important as a Girls Minister is to “PR” our church to our church. With such a minuscule amount of churches that have full-time Girls Ministers (though quickly growing and far beyond where it was 5-10 years ago!), it is important to showcase areas like this and other areas the church is advancing in. Whenever I have the opportunity to speak with a deacon or church member, I say something like, “Isn’t so awesome to be at a church that gets the importance of Girls Ministry?”

But the truth is, they aren’t going to know about our ministry and its importance unless we tell them. The greatest tragedy would be for our people to get comfortable with any blessing from the Lord, ourselves included. We don’t have to have a Girls Ministry, but the Lord has blessed us in fulfilling Titus 2. We don’t have to host conferences or provide recreational opportunities…but wow, has the Lord used ministries like these to build and deepen relationships.

I am not promoting a prideful spirit, but yet I am asking, do we boast enough in Christ? Do we make known the works He is doing? Do we highlight enough the blessings that we, ourselves could never have done apart from God? This stuff is inspiring! Let’s not hoard this to ourselves.  

How can you brag on God’s work to your church this week?

“But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord."

1 Corinthians 1:31, 2 Corinthians 10:17, Jeremiah 9:24

I love Christmas. I love giving to people. But I also hate Christmas. Because I want my gift to matter. Really matter.

Let me introduce to you Freeset. Freeset is located in Calcutta, India, helping to free women from human trafficking by providing them employment with dignity by sewing bags. Every woman is provided medical insurance, retirement, daycare for their children, classes to learn how to read and write, and three times the wage they would receive “in line.”

I first heard about Freeset at our .MOM conference hosted by LifeWay. I'd heard stories about human trafficking and knew about some hot spots where this was taking place. I had no idea it was happening in India. After talking to their volunteers and hearing some of the stories of these women, my heart was again broken over this issue. And my heart was grateful that someone was doing something about it.

We are partnering with Freeset to provide bags for those who attend our LifeWay Girls' Conference in February.

Right now, this company is in the middle of the Freeset’s Freedom Tour of 12 Days of Freedom with Freeset. It's a way to get the message out about their ministry and to challenge people to make a difference in the lives of people who are often forgotten.

Watch their video below. Shop at their store, change lives.