Being A Big Girl

Several years ago I read a book that from time to time I like to go back to and just re-read some of the places I highlighted. Today I once again found myself picking up the book and skimming through it. The book? Big Girls Don't Whine by Jan Silvious.

I'd like to share some of the "Big-Girl Truths to Live By." We all need reminding. We have all dealt with or are dealing with adult women behaving like "little girls". Sometimes it is we ourselves behaving like the "little girl."

Big-Girl Truth to Live By:

*Making the choice to pursue maturity can fix a lot of what is broken in your life, even when you don't recognize your brokenness.
*You can always add to a conversation at the appropriate time, but you never can erase words once spoken.
*Your capacity to think is your greatest asset. Mature thinking produces mature living.
*In the grand scheme of things, only one thing really matters: a relationship (living, breathing, vital and real) with Jesus.
*No matter what stage of life you are in, your life is all about Christ and His work in it.
*Big Girls don't have to have everything perfect to be okay.
*You have to open your mouth and say what you want. Your husband is not telepathic.
*Healthy relationships are nourished by boundaries. You can't have relationships without a plan for healthy relating.
*Being a Big-Girl mom is all about being strong and real. Children can respect strong if they see that the one meting out the rule is real!
*Life is too short to keep nursing a problem between really good friends.
*When you love a friend and she knows it, you can be her best encourager to do what is right and good.
*When you ask God for wisdom, He will give it. But He will insist that you believe Him rather than waver in doubt.
*In the golden years, the fruit of a Big Girls life becomes increasingly beautiful and priceless.
*Truth and wisdom and insight and love can't be passed on in a vacuum.

A Big Girl's Prayer.

God, I want to become the full-grown, fully mature, grace-filled woman that you envisioned before I was even born. I want to be the full-size, grown-up version of that wonder filled baby girl You knit together in my mother's womb. I want to be so in tune with You and Your thoughts and ideas for me that I can know and celebrate on a daily basis that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I want your dream for me to be a reality.

Help me to respond to life's sometimes messy circumstances in god honoring maturity. Help me to be strong and yet real, to speak only when I feel you leading me to speak. Help me to realize that it is often in my brokenness and my weaknesses that you choose to work. God, Help me to get on with the life that you have intended for me. Help me to be a Big Girl even in those moments when all that is in me wants to stomp, whine and throw a little girl temper tantrum.