Teaching A Girl Responsibility Part 3
Honesty goes hand in hand with reliability and good stewardship, by the way: If a chore is too much for you, it doesn't help to just not do it and never mention it to anyone, until someone finds out when it is too late to be done by someone else. If a girl learns from an early age onwards how highly priced reliability and good stewardship are in the family, both by seeing how her mother approaches her chores and by contributing herself according to her age, she will readily and easily live up the the ideal shown to us by the Proverbs 31 woman by the time she is ready to be married and manage her own household.
3. Growing into the whole by learning about the parts
Just like a child cannot and will not learn all of God's Law at once, and understand it all equally well right from the start, so the "mysteries" of the well oiled machine called household will be revealed to a girl step by step. It is important to teach her those things that can be done by her at a certain age, not more, but certainly also not less. Just like she will watch and learn from her mothers and older sisters how to sew, tend to the garden, cook, bake, or knit, she will learn from them how God expects a woman to behave within her family. And just like bit by bit, she will participate in chores, take them over after a while, and discover their importance for the whole household, she will grow into an understanding of God's plan for His people and living it in her own place in the family. The first step will be watching and learning, the second will be trying things out and taking them over, and a third will be a more reflective approach that discloses the mechanisms at work "behind the scenes" of the daily household procedures. Her growth with scripture will follow a similar succession - from watching her mothers and sisters in their conduct she will go to developing behaviors herself, which then will be reflected in the light of Scripture.
Responsibility for household chores and responsibility for behavior are not two separate things to be learned, but go hand in hand. It is our responsibility as parents to guide our children, daughters and sons, so that they can develop into responsible adults who know what God expects from each of us, and how that can be applied practically to everyday life.
Go back to the beginning and Part 2 here
