How’s it going for those of you in the Beth Moore study? I hope you’re able to find a chance to dig into the homework. It’s not easy, is it? I’m loving every minute I can sit down and really pore through it. And my thoughts are with you today. I know I want to keep it up so I’ll be able to join in the discussion over the weekend.

Last night, my husband was showing our kids a video of a camping trip he and some friends took to a lake in Minnesota about 15 years ago. It was a beautiful spot — quiet and peaceful. At some point, one of his friends filmed him sitting beside the lake writing in his journal. I was so jealous just watching that! I said, “I can’t even imagine how much fun that would be — to sit beside a lake and do my Beth Moore homework!”

While I do mine, there’s a swirl of noise around me — and last night my 11-month-old daughter kept grabbing at my Bible — I have the NIV Life Application Bible — which I love! She was fascinated watching my pen scribble across the workbook pages. And you know how those onion-thin pages sound when you flip them back and forth — as we do in our homework. She loved that crinkly sound and wanted to flip pages with her little chubby hand.

I kept giving her other toys to play with or another book to read — but within a couple of minutes, she was right back where I was, wanting to know what FASCINATED me about that fun BOOK I was reading!

And I realized — this is the start for her! She’s only a baby now, but as she grows up, I want her to keep seeing me read my Bible. It’s the Book that matters most — full of relevant, life-changing words that will build her faith and give her life a purpose. Even just a few minutes ago, I was listening to James Dobson on the radio as he shared about abstinence education for teens. It’s in the Bible! It can give teens something to hold onto during those years as well.

One of my favorite bloggers is Carmen of Full-Contact, Christ-Centric Living. I remember a few months ago when Carmen just started her blog, and she said she wasn’t sure what exactly to focus on. We emailed back and forth about it. I told her something like, “Mentor people like me! Teach me how to raise godly kids! How do we do this in our culture today?”

Carmen (a mom of six) has some great advice in her blog for moms raising teenagers. Her recent post, To Hunt or Not to Hunt is inspiring for me. A mother asked her a question: “Christian guys are so timid today, and my daughters are asking if it’s OK for them to approach guys. How will they meet the right guy? Should they call guys or wait to be called?”

And here’s part of Carmen’s answer, though I encourage you to read all of it!

I’m raising a house full of boys. I’m in a position to tell you what the kind of boys I’d want to get hitched up with for the rest of my life are looking for in a girl, and it’s NOT a girl who’s chasing after guys. My sons are learning to prepare their fields first, then build a home. In other words, they aren’t looking for girls, and are hoping to avoid entanglement until they’re prepared to provide a home for a family. When they do begin to look for God’s will in a wife, the pursuers, hunters, chasers, flirts won’t be on their lists.

My advice for teenage girls? Learn to be beautiful in God’s eyes (I Peter 3:1-6). If you’re good at something, get better at it (sure wish I had been serious about art or writing when I was 17 or 18!) If you’re not good at anything, learn. Learn to write, learn to crochet, learn about hospitality, learn about horses, learn to sew and strive to excel at it—in other words, do it as unto the Lord. Enjoy being a single young woman in the Lord now. When you get married, you’re married for life. That’s a long time!

Can you see why I like “hanging around” Carmen? We live on opposite sides of the U.S., yet she’s mentoring me through her blog, and she’s also become a parenting columnist for The Dabbling Mum magazine.

Now, while you’re visiting her site, I hope you can take a few minutes and check out this survey she’s working on. You can cut and paste these questions into an email and send it to her. Do you visit your local public library? If you do, her survey and research may help make your public library a better, more wholesome place for your family. It took me less than five minutes to answer her questions.

P.S. These aren’t my hands here, in case you’re wondering.