Beloved Daughter

The love of father and mother for their teenage daughter is unique in its diversity, but it remains love, through whomever it may be manifested.

The Lord is present in our human love and through this relationship applies His hand and exerts His influence on the hearts of those with whom it comes into contact. And if parents understand whose vessels they are and who acts through them, then they can purposefully share the power of God's love and ask for greater love.

A father loves in a masculine way and does so sincerely, as he understands. His love is expressed concretely, rationally, purposefully, logically, and has a protective character, including mentorship, respect for freedom, and recognition of the right to choose. Though a woman's heart sometimes finds it difficult to understand masculine logic, it greatly needs this type of love and is very drawn to those from whom it can receive it. In her father's love a girl feels protected, becomes more confident in making various decisions, realizes emotional support, and doesn't experience fear of failure.

A father with his love for his daughter lays in her a sense of feminine dignity, helping her realize her true value and forms in her femininity that men so like.

A loving father reflects God's image, and under this influence the daughter develops comprehensively in a natural Heavenly environment of relationships, where her spirit, soul, and body are formed according to God's laws and are under God's protection.

By his attitude in love, a father forms in his daughter a true concept of beauty, which manifests itself not only in external appearance but also in inner qualities. A girl loved by her father has high self-esteem and feels confident in various life circumstances, even if her papa is far away.

Though fathers are not always verbose in expressing their feelings and emotions and differ in showing love from their wives, their language of love is understandable, visible from their deeds, and very comprehensible and needed by daughters, and sons too.

The father's role as spiritual mentor for his daughter is irreplaceable. With his unconditional love he demonstrates God's love and lays in his daughter's heart a solid foundation for developing her personal relationship with the Heavenly Father.

Many fathers care about gathering a worthy inheritance for their children, protecting them from poverty and need in the future, giving children what they themselves didn't have, but the best inheritance that fathers can pass to their children is faith in Jesus and personal relationships with Him. If this is absent, then everything else makes no sense, though it may ease earthly life.

A father's faith, his spiritual instructions, words of truth, personal example—all this leaves a certain imprint in his daughter's consciousness, and the Holy Spirit will remind at the right time everything that was heard by her.

It's not difficult for a loving father to admire his beloved daughter, see hidden blessings in her, reveal dormant talents, be support in difficult times, show due respect.

Fatherly love satisfies the daughter's emotional need for masculine love and protects the girl from seeking this love in other men.

One preacher joked: "Daughters choose husbands who are very similar to their fathers, which is why their mothers cry so bitterly at their weddings."

A mother's love is also very important and needed in the life of a teenage girl, and a son too. A mother loves in a feminine way and will never replace the father with her love. Her love is more emotional, deep, and intuitive. She loves with all her heart, with all her feelings, and is ready to sacrifice herself and her health. She can warm, comfort, and caress her daughter in a way that no father can do. She understands her daughter's feelings and knows how to build confidential conversations, having personal experience of what her child is going through.

Mom helps form emotional maturity. She explains to her daughter what's happening in her body and that this shouldn't be feared. She teaches her daughter hygiene, cleanliness, neatness, explaining why this is needed and how it's useful.

A mother helps her daughter cope with emotional storms that often happen in adolescence and teaches understanding of other people's feelings.

Mom is something soft, warm, caring, tender. Her prayers for her daughter's happiness and well-being sound at all times, and with her interest in spiritual truths she is always a visual example for her little one.

Through her participation in her daughter's emotional world, a mother teaches her to correctly experience different events and voice the pain that comes uninvited from outside and crashes into life.

Some fathers consider that expressing tenderness, kind words, heartfelt embraces, and sensitivity for their maturing daughter is a manifestation of weakness for a strong man, thinking that the daughter will figure out that her father loves her from demonstrating his diligent work for the family's benefit. As a result, the girl develops hunger for masculine warmth, and she begins involuntarily seeking someone who would satisfy her thirst for fatherly love. And she finds not what she really needs.

A father can also from his selfish love begin to excessively control his teenage daughter and limit her freedom, which will inevitably lead to rebellion from the girl, to loss of trust in her father and desire to do something contrary to common sense to prove that she is free to act as she wants herself.

Misunderstanding of his daughter's feelings, her experiences and pain can also put a father in an awkward position and lead to breaking trusting relationships. What seems to a father like foolishness and empty experiences can be for a girl the most important period of life and acute need for fatherly participation and support.

Mom should also understand that excessive care in adolescence won't bring blessings for forming her daughter's full personality. The girl may begin to fear adult life and cling so to her mother that then her entire future family will suffer from this. It will be difficult for the daughter to make independent decisions and take responsibility for her life.

But the biggest mistake a mother makes is when she begins to destroy her daughter's father's authority and complain about his failures and mistakes. These evil seeds will then be very difficult to remove from the girl's memory, and if they sprout, then the fruits of such sowing will be very bitter for everyone, including the mother.

Loving parents shouldn't condemn, blame, or criticize anyone in the presence of children. This spirit is very contagious and pleasant for fleshly nature.

For a teenage girl, the unconditional Divine love of both parents is important, both toward herself and between them toward each other. There is nothing more pleasant for a daughter than to see how her father loves and values her mother and shares these warm relationships with her, and how the mother fears her husband, showing him due respect, honor, and gratitude, teaching her daughter to manifest the same spirit.

How important it is for a daughter not to hear quarrels and disagreements in her father's house. What blessing the mutual love of all family members brings to each other! This is the practical side of truth—that we, loving God, love each other and in this mutual love return everything to Him who is Love.

1. Please read 1 Peter 1:22; Proverbs 31:26-28; Titus 2:4-5; Exodus 2:16; Job 42:15; Esther 2:7; Psalm 143:12; Isaiah 49:15; 60:4; Joel 2:28; Acts 2:16-18; 21:9, in light of this lesson.

2. What other verses from the Bible came to your memory?

3. What was revealed to you in this chapter?

4. Why is it important for a girl to feel that she is a beloved daughter?

5. How does parental love influence the formation of femininity in a daughter?

6. Why do offenses accumulated in childhood often prevent a daughter from trusting her parents in adolescence?

7. How can parental love reflect the love of the Heavenly Father?

8. What biblical women can be examples for a daughter?

9. How to find balance between strictness and tenderness in raising a daughter?

10. Why is it important not to compare your daughter with other girls, even "for educational purposes"?

11. How often do you need to tell your daughter that you love her?

12. Where to start if there is a wall of misunderstanding between parents and daughter?

13. What to do so that your daughter remembers your love when she becomes an adult?

14. What can you change in your words and actions today to strengthen the relationship between children and parents?