Can I tell you something very embarrassing?

I’m a lecturer. Big time.

It’s not a solid parenting strategy, and I wish it wasn’t my default. After 17-plus years, I think I’m a little better about it than I used to be. But I’m pretty sure my girl would say I’m still prone to lecturing.

When my daughter Casiday was 13, we had what I refer to as “The. Worst. Summer. Ever.” I felt as if I’d spent the entire summer lecturing her on things she should already have known and done. I’m sure if you were to ask her, she’d say she felt like I spent the whole summer nagging. By the time she went back to school that August, I was pretty sure I had “Most Terrible Mom” status secured for all time.

There aren’t many seasons in parenting I wish I could do over. But those three months in 2013 – I’d love the opportunity to try them again.

I’ve learned an important truth since that summer: God’s words about my daughter matter far more than my words to her.

A couple of years after that terrible summer, my daughter walked through a difficult season in her life. I’ll be honest here, I wanted to tell her exactly what to do and how to respond. But I didn’t. Why?

She didn’t need to know what I would do or say. She needed to know what God’s Word said about her. When our children know who God says they are, it is far more powerful in their lives than anything we can say to or about them.

Isaiah 43:1-4 became the foundation of my prayers for her that summer. If you haven’t read those verses lately, I urge you to look them up now. I’ll wait right here while you read them.

Good stuff, right? Imagine if our girls – and their moms too – grasped the truths about themselves found in these verses?

What if our girls believed and held fast to what God says?

• That they were created and formed by the God who spoke all things into creation.
• That they need not fear because they are redeemed, called by name, claimed by the Most High God.
• That no matter what life brings, God will uphold them and draw them near.
• That He looks at them and calls them precious, honored and loved.

Those are game-changers, right?

Let’s be moms who point our daughters to biblical truth, who pray for them to walk in their identity in Christ, and let’s remember always that His words about them are always far more important than our words to them.

Praying Scripture for and with our girls is the core message of my new book, “Praying for Girls: Asking God for the Things They Need Most” available at LifeWay, Barnes & Noble, and all major online retailers.