Zondervan Blog

Posted: 18 Feb 2013 07:30 AM PST

Nancy Rue, author of numerous Zonderkidz titles such a Dear Nancy, Totally Unfair, and False Friends and True Strangers writes about the powerful connection that you can have to your tween girl, even while she begins to go through the many changes of becoming a teenager.

As a Zonderkidz author for some (insert muffled voice) years, I'm thrilled to be here as a guest blogger. And three guesses what I'm going to talk about – my fave subject: Mini-Women.

For the uninitiated, that is the 8 to 12 year old girl who is no longer that sweet little baby girlfriend who thought you were as infallible as Elmo, but who has not yet completely lost her mind and become a teenager. Psychologists used to refer to this age range as "the latent period", though it is anything but. Even the title "tween" was coined by the advertising world to denote a group who is merely "between."

But this wonderful, changing-daily (or hourly), unpredictable period is full of the potential for crazy fun Mini-Women to someday turn into the godly full-grown versions. This is where it begins. Not three years from now when the eyes start to roll and the most frequently used word is "whatever." The time is now.

The good news is that in the tween years, a girl is still more likely to look to her parents for guidance, security, and all-out authority than she is to anyone else, including the all-knowing BFF (or group thereof). She wants her mom and dad. She responds to them. She soaks them up like the proverbial sponge.

The even better news? She is, by nature of her developmental stage, open to all that the Christian faith has to offer: forgiveness, hope, empowerment, a sense of belonging and acceptance, and the knowledge that she is loved unconditionally.

So how do we capitalize on all that? By engaging our tween girls in conversations about their faith, in terms of the issues and struggles they're facing right now – things that may not seem like problems to you at all, but are monumental in their world.

I have a suggestion. If you are the parent of a tween girl or you're in a position of influence in the life of one, get her a FaithGirlz Bible. I promise I would say that even if I wasn't the author of the features. (Really!) Those of us who worked on this Bible had one goal in mind: to help mini-women see that Scripture is relevant to their lives today. Every sidebar ties the featured passage to a tween-sized personal issue, everything from getting along with siblings, to, well, getting along with God.

Right now, we have a giveaway going on. Simply click here to enter & for all the details.

Whether you use the FaithGirlz Bible or any other version, I hope you'll carve out some time to share the spiritual adventure with that mini-woman (this is one simple way to do so) in your life who still thinks you know more than she does!

Blessings,

Nancy Rue

Contact or find more information about Nancy at any of these places:

Radical Experiment-FBCW

Bible Gateway Beginning Reading Plan (NASB)

For Families

IMB Prayer Lists

NAMB Prayer Lists/News

2013-02-18

Zondervan Blog

Zondervan Blog

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