Read an Excerpt
Faithgirlz! Handbook
How to let your faith shine through
By Suzanne Hadley
Zondervan
Copyright © 2011 Zondervan
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-310-72697-5
Chapter One
WEEK 1
GETTING TO GETTING KNOW YOU
Welcome to the Faithgirlz Club! We're here to get to know one another, learn something new about God, and have fun! Faithgirlz is a club where we will find out together who God is and who he has made us to be. As girls, we all want to be beautiful. The Faithgirlz Club will help you learn how to be beautiful inside and out.
Let's Pray!
Open the Faithgirlz Club in prayer, asking God to guide your time together as you learn more about him and each other.
Let's Recite!
Read aloud the Faithgirlz verse from 2 Corinthians 4:18, and then recite the Faithgirlz promise.
Let's Read!
What does the Faithgirlz verse mean? Everything we "see" in this world — pictures in magazines, celebrities on TV, and our friends — sends us a message. But this verse tells us that we are to focus on what is "unseen." There is a hidden world God wants to show us. He wants to give us the secrets to being truly beautiful and happy.
The things we see may promise happiness, but they can never deliver the satisfaction we get from following God's ways. Why is it important to focus on the unseen truths about God? Because those are the things that last forever. A girl may look very beautiful in a magazine today, but in a few years she could look totally different. That kind of beauty doesn't last.
Our Faithgirlz promise talks about the things that will make us beautiful both inside and out. Beauty is all about God's love! The Bible says, "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). God loves us! That's a wonderful foundation to build our whole lives on. Because he loves us, we can love him and then love others. His love helps us take pride in who we are — because we are created in his image — and appreciate the talents and beauty of others. Each week we will recite our Faithgirlz promise to remind us of the kind of young women God wants us to be.
Let's Talk!
What does it mean to you to be a Faithgirl? (Write down answers on a poster board or a large piece of paper.) What goals can we set as a group to move closer to being the women God wants us to be?
Getting Closer
What object did you bring that reflects who you are? Take turns talking about your object and why you chose it to tell others something about yourself. How does the object show that you are different from others? How does it show that you are the same as others?
Let's Make It!
PERFECT PERSONALIZED LOCKER MIRRORS
Make these marvelous mini mirrors to reflect you!
You'll need:
* scissors
* cardboard or sturdy foam
* scrapbook paper or fabric scraps
* craft glue
* small mirrors (4 by 6 inches)
* magnetic strips
* stickers, magazine cutouts, photos, glitter, ribbon
Directions:
1 Cut cardboard into a 6-by-8-inch rectangle.
2 Cut a piece of paper or fabric large enough to cover cardboard, allowing at least two extra inches to wrap around each edge.
3 Secure fabric on cardboard with craft glue and allow to dry. Take care to have neat corners and a smooth appearance on front and back.
4 Position mirror in center of cardboard backing and secure with glue.
5 Attach 2-by-6-inch magnetic strips on back side of mirror with glue.
6 Decorate exposed fabric with ribbons, stickers, or anything that represents you.
Let's Memorize! * 2 Corinthians 4:18 2
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Let's Write!
Take time to answer the following questions in your journal:
* What does it mean for you to be a Faithgirl?
* What things in your life — activities, relationships, belongings — reflect you? What do these things reveal about who you are (your personality, character, or passions)?
* How can you focus on unseen things — truths about God — as much as the things you see?
Go girl!
This week, talk to one person about what it means to be a Faithgirl.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Faithgirlz! Handbook by Suzanne Hadley Copyright © 2011 by Zondervan. Excerpted by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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