In our highly technological age, we have the ability to see how everyone else lives and thinks. Through the eyes of television, movies, the Internet, radio and magazines, we are exposed to an amazing amount of opinions. A girl can very easily find any type of role model that she relates to. Before this technological age, what choices did girls/young women have for role models? Why, the people in their immediate family and those in the community around them, of course! A young girl could look up to an older sister, her mother, aunts or grandmother. Perhaps she would look up to her teacher at school or a kind neighbor. Peers might become friends, but when it came to looking forward, the women in their lives were their models.
It seems to me that young girls today often look up to other girls (teens or young adults) as role models. Is that what they are aspiring to be – a famous teenager? Is that as far as they are looking into the future?
If a girl or young woman has the desire to have a quiet and meek spirit (I Peter 3:4) or to be a homemaker (Titus 2:5) when she grows up, to whom can she turn for a role model?
Ideally, she can look to her own mother and other relatives. This is a great responsibility that is placed on a mother and that has been neglected to varying degrees in today’s culture. Since when did parents cease to be role models for their children? A girl should also be able to look up to women in her church. Unfortunately, sometimes church ladies are often too closely mirroring the world to be good role models.
Obviously, a girl’s age has a great deal to do with this issue. Once a girl reaches a certain age, she will choose for herself what people she will look up to and often that person will be beyond her immediate family. That’s why the groundwork must be laid by her parents when she’s very young.
Last year, I read an excellent book entitled Raising Maidens of Virtue: A Study of Feminine Loveliness for Mothers and Daughters by Stacy McDonald. This book gave a very balanced approach to the struggle to remain a virtuous young woman in today’s society. I plan to go through this study with our own daughters when they’re older. However, the principles in the book are ones that we can begin to instill now. If our daughters have a firm grasp on what God desires for them as young women, they will hopefully gravitate toward role models who are living that lifestyle as they grow.
As I was pondering this topic, I came across an article on the Ladies Against Feminism website entitled “Our Ministry of Mentoring“. The author, Ms. Klein, talks about being a mentor to young women. She stresses that all of us as Christian women should make ourselves available to teach women younger than ourselves. It is a worthwhile read! [Edited to add: Ms. Klein wrote a second part to this article. You can read it here.]As a mother, it would be wise for me to point my daughters in the direction of good mentors who are willing to communicate with them.
One place to find such mentors is the Internet. I’ve come across several very nice websites out there by young Christian ladies who are attempting to mentor other young women. One such website is Visionary Daughters.
I have already begun to pray for good role models to present themselves to our girls as they grow. Of course, I also pray for grace and wisdom that I might become their best role model, too. It is a great responsibility to be a role model for someone else.
I believe that it is our responsibility as parents to guard our girls from bad influences, but it is equally important to expose them to good influences! There are so many people and philosophies out there ready and willing to influence them if we will not.
What do you think? Does it matter who a girl’s role model is? Who do your daughters look to as role models?
