There is a longing in the heart of every girl.
A longing to be wanted and pursued.
Each night when I pray for my beautiful girl, I want her to hear me thanking God for who she is and for the gift of being her mom! I want her to know she is wanted and valued. That I miss her when we’re not together. I want her to know she’s not a side-item on my very full plate, but she is my heart’s delight and dessert! And you know what? She’s thinks I’m pretty amazing too?
Well… at least for now.
But I’ve been a mommy before. And I know a day is coming when there will be competition for my girl’s attention.
More than me. More than her daddy. More than her big brothers. One day Aster is going to want a guy to want her, to pursue her, to choose her.
And when it happens, I don’t want to panic and wish I could do something to get her to stop chasing after some guy, hoping he’ll notice her. I want her to know…
She’s already been noticed.
She’s already captured Someone’s heart.
She’s already being pursued.
And even though Aster is only five and a half years old, I’m realizing that now is the time for me to start planting these truths in her heart. But it wasn’t until I read my friend Lynn Cowell’s new book “Magnetic: Becoming the Girl He Wants,“ that I realized I needed help to get started.
Lynn’s new book is for girls (and their moms) to walk alongside and help them discover how to become the best version of the beautiful girl God created her to be. There is so much I love about this message. And that is why I wanted to share with you an excerpt from Chapter One today {and I’ve got 3 copies to give away too!}:
“Why doesn’t he like me? I just couldn’t figure it out.
What is it about me that isn’t as attractive as her? Am I not as pretty? Am I too loud? Are my friends not cool enough? The questions gnawed at me, eating away at my confidence. He had liked me once,; surely I could get him to like me again. There had to be a way.
I was determined to find out what was wrong with me.
Back in my own “wish I were dating” days, my highs and lows depended on whether or not I saw him in the hall; my happiness was determined by whether or not he noticed me. The crush I had was crushing me.
I wish there had been someone who could have helped me…someone who could have helped me understand that the longing in my heart pointed not to my need for a guy, but to my deeper need for something, Someone, even greater.
How I wish I had known sooner that I was created to be loved perfectly and unconditionally, made to have my heart filled each and every day with love from the perfect Man – Jesus.
Then I could have spent my time, energy, and emotions, not on a guy I didn’t have, but on the One I did. I could have moved from obsessing over why I wasn’t wanted to becoming the type of girl a godly guy would want. Not just someone to date but someone he’d want to spend the rest of his life with.
I remember making the list, a gargantuan description of everything I was looking for in the guy I would marry one day. The more powerful list would have described the woman I wanted to become, the woman he couldn’t resist!
What would happen if you made the switch now? Shifted your focus off a guy and onto the Guy?
What if, together, we discovered an irresistible beauty deeper than designer clothes, jean sizes, and flaw-free skin? A confidence so attractive, nothing could cause us to lose it? A glamour simply magnetic?
In my quest to discover true beauty, I began to see gorgeous as much more than the face in my mirror. Gorgeous is not skin-deep but heart-deep, a beauty that develops as my heart discovers and returns True Love.
This beauty, this attractiveness, is found in the girl who has what I call “captivating characteristics”—what the Bible calls “the fruit of the Spirit.” These heart traits are described in Galatians 5:22–23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
These magnetic traits are the result, or fruit, of the girl who has given her entire life to Jesus. The girl who spends her emotional energy allowing Him to live His life through her.
But, you don’t have to burn yourself out trying to become perfect. These gorgeous qualities will show up as you spend time with God and He pours His perspective into you!
When you’re “planted” in God, He provides all you need to reach your full potential—to be the best you you can be!
And, instead of chasing after the guy running from you, you’re pursuing the One coming after you. In the process of seeking His heart, you’ll become the amazing individual He designed you to be, a girl who is irresistibly magnetic, beautiful inside and out!
ENTER TO WIN:
Packed with honesty, encouragement and perspective-changing Magnetic, truth by Lynn Cowell,(available at Amazon, B&N, CBD, everywhere books are sold), will empower girls and young woman to reach their fullest potential by focusing on becoming who God made them to be! A girl who reflects God’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. A girl who will attract the right type of guy one day: one who loves God with all his heart and who will cherish her!
CLICK “Share Your Thoughts” under this post and ENTER to WIN!
Lynn Cowell is a Proverbs 31 speaker and the author of several books including “Magnetic: Becoming the Girl He Wants”. Her passion is to empower wise women to raise wiser daughters. Her husband and their three children live in North Carolina where they love to hike, raft and enjoy anything that includes chocolate and peanut butter!
I would have loved to have had a book such as this when I was younger. I am going to share this book with myGoddaughter who turns 12 in December. Also my 7 yrs old niece.
I wish I would have known that I am unique and worthy of love.
To know that you will never know what love is until you experience the love the FATHER has for you. In today’s world the word love is thrown around lightly and with that people are hurt when things do not work out. Instead of rushing into a relationship with someone….RUSH into a deeper relations with God and experience that love first!
i remember those years of empty longing. Looking back, I am so grateful for the Lord’s hand in my life that protected me from so many choices I could have made (and perhaps would have made) that would have caused a great deal of pain and regret.
If only I would have grasped the truth in my younger years… that my identity and confidence is in Christ. I have three young girls and I am hoping to instill these truths in their tender hearts
My daughter is the same age as your daughter! and i really appreciate how you care for her so much as a mom! as a mom myself, i want to be the best mom that i can be,the kind of mom that God wants me to be for her specifically! i am truly blessed to have her as a daughter and quite honoured that God have us her to love!
thanks for your story
blessings to your daughter she is beautiful.
Sincerelly,
Laura Lee
I often wonder how different my life may have been if I had had someone to mentor me in this subject. I hope, with the Lord’s help, to be able to instill these important values in my daughter who is 10.
What a wonderful giveaway! Thanks for the opportunity ツ
One thing I’ve always been careful of telling my beautiful daughter: ‘You are pretty b/c you have a pretty heart.’
I want her to carry the words of Psalm 34:5 deep within…”Those who look to Him will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces.” …because the world shouts the exact opposite every single day.
Being individually unique – when you so desperately want to fit in – is challenging for our girls. I want my girl to know she is so loved by Him.
I wish I had known that the God of the universe had created me in His image, and created a husband for me in His image. I wish I had waited on the Lord! Wait on the Lord, sit at His feet girls, soak up His love! It’s all you need! #magneticgiveaway
I wish I had known as a teen that for God I was enough! That the way the world sees me is not as God sees me.
I have 2 daughters. ages 13 & 11. Thanks for sharing this excerpt…the book sounds great – and much needed in girls’ lives today!
The best advice I received as a young girl, came the day of my twelfth birthday. My mom took me out for lunch, (we had pizza, my favorite) a tradition she began with my older sister and practiced with all five girls as we turned 12 years old.
She then presented me with my first wrist watch a pastel pink Caravelle Bulova and a beautiful purity ring, with Psalm 61:10 engraved in it. Then she opened her Bible and read from the book of Ecclesiastes 3. We then had tea and cake, and talked for 3 hours about the “facts of life” and of course boys.
This tradition I have kept with my daughter as well. The memories are priceless!
I meant to write Psalm 51:10.