Shared by Anne Reid Broos, Director of Children and Young Family Ministry

Back in the spring, I received a call from a church member, Bethany, who is a fellow mom of a fifth-grade girl.  She shared with me that she’d been to a training called “Making Sense of Your Worth” and that, what she learned through it, was information she wished she’d heard herself as a tween girl.

The “tween” years are a unique time in that they serve as a transition from being a child to a teenager.

Bethany and I prayed about the possibility of having a small group for tween girls in our church.  Through our Mental Health Ministry grant and her willingness to lead, it became a reality. 

Our hope was for this small group to be…

A place where they can be themselves.

A place where they can be encouraged.

Most importantly, a time in which we can talk about the truth of who we are as children of God. 

Other voices in the world will tell us who we are and aren’t or whether or not we’re enough.  When that happens, we can turn to the truth of who our Creator says we are—that our identity is in Jesus Christ.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!” 

I John 3:1

After meeting for just a few weeks, I can see fruit of this ministry in my own daughter’s life.

On the car ride home one evening after small group, my ten-year-old asked me if I know the “Three C’s.”  After I told her I that it didn’t ring a bell, she said, “It means don’t compete, don’t criticize, and don’t compare.”  She was connecting the dots that our lives, as people of faith, are more abundant when we try to refrain from the “Three C’s.”

Like Bethany, I thought about how I wish I’d been taught that as a tween girl.

I’m thankful that these girls are hearing it now.  God is good.