Once a month our family attends a group called Maidens of Virtue. I love this group for many reasons, but probably the greatest is that I can attend this along side my three precious daughters. There we are encouraged to learn God's Word and study in depth what a godly woman is. They are currently going through the book Polished Cornerstones by Pam Forster. They meet in a home where we have beautifully set tables of lace, fresh flower centerpieces, 'danties' are served on overflowing platters (each mom brings something from home, usually homemade bread,biscotti, muffins, fruit or something their daughters have created). They have singing, praying and sharing/demonstrations of domestic skills or crafts. They also host tea parties with speakers, one at Christmas and one in the spring. Often the mothers and daughters will teach as a team, with mom teaching the lesson and daughter reading the verses.
Here is a sampling of the singing before the lesson, they usually start off with prayer and then a hymn:
(Sandi Grutzius graciously teaches mothers and daughters how to sing hymn in 2 part harmony)
Here are more pictures:
(Lovely table set for Maidens of Virtue meeting)
(Moms getting seated with their daughters)
(Children seated waiting for group to begin)
(This past meeting was creating a gift for dad for Fathers day. Here are my daughters working on decorating gift bags for their gifts. I can't tell what the actual gifts were because my husband might read this!)Another thing that is great about the group is that while the mothers and daughters are gathered together learning about feminine godliness, the fathers and sons meet at the same time at a house/location nearby in a group called Men of Valor. They do exciting things such as work with power tools, community/church service, potato cannon shoots, pancake breakfasts with speakers, etc., all tied in with a biblical theme! The last meeting they used the book Created for Work by Bob Shultz and made wood project presents for Mother's day. It is not every day that fathers and sons can get together to do 'manly' things together and still learn the word of God. It is invaluable the time they are getting to spend together in this fast paced world that doesn't seem to allow anytime for relationships to become fostered. The next event they will be doing target practice with pistols and rifles in the woods---my boys are in heaven just thinking about it!
Many groups today divide up the family. Moms are in their own groups, dads have their mens groups, teen have youth groups--they hardly have time together after work and school. What I love about the focus of these meetings is growing strong relationships between the parent and children giving them something meaningful to do as they learn about godliness in nurturing setting. My children will forever remember the time they got to spend with us in these settings and will cherish them one day.
What's nice is that there are other groups being birthed out of this group. There seems to be a high interest in what they do since these kinds of groups are rare. Since I have attended there have been two groups birthed out of this group called 'Daughters of Destiny' and 'Young Maidens Society'--the latter group started with my sister-in-law who attended a Maidens of Virtue group only once!!! We are also praying about perhaps starting one around here...:)
Many of you have written and inquired about this group showing great interest in attending however, it was out of your local area. I highly encourage you, if you have the means, time and blessing from God and husband to maybe start your own group in your area if this interests you and there isn't one available to you. It doesn't have to be anything fancy and can be just a small group of people, it's a great means of fellowship too. Maybe you already lead a group with your husband and can incorporate some of the ideas here with your ministry that you have already, if you have any questions about it, I'd be happy to answer them. Whatever the case-- be sure to spend time with your daughters and sons and grow closer at nurturing those special relationships with them. You're time with them is short and all of the things you could invest your time in, you will never regret the time invested in your children.
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I highly recommend the book Raising Maidens of Virtue
I used this book with my two older daughters and did it over tea
They learned alot and were great encouraged!
