8 Great Dates :: date one

Did you do it, did you do it? Piper and I did and were incredibly blessed by our experience!

Last week I encouraged you to not get too caught up in the “details” of the date. Don’t get me wrong, they can be important and definitely serve a specific purpose. But if you’re a type-A and have perfectionist tendencies, I’d much rather you focus on the purpose of the date, than the details of the date.

As for me? I’m keepin’ it real with you! I have four girls, we’re new{ish} to our area, and I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of extra time for this date. Rather than get discouraged, I improvised and made it work for us.

Let me share …

I decided we’d go to Starbucks for our favorite drinks. I know my Piper embarrasses easily and wouldn’t be comfortable with people sitting around us, possibly hearing our conversation {gasp!} or watching what I pulled out of my bag o’ goodies.

I chose a Starbucks in our outdoor mall, which allowed us to walk to a private outdoor park bench for our date. It turned out to be the perfect place!

There were three stages to our first date:

1. Hand massage – I didn’t do this with Piper. Touch isn’t her love language, and given how she embarrasses easily, I really felt this would set our date off on the wrong foot. My next daughter is all about touch, so I know this part of the date will go a long way with her. But again, I think this goes back to knowing your daughters, what makes them tick, and what makes them comfortable.
2. Tea Party – As I mentioned, we went to Starbucks and ordered our favorite drinks. This worked well for us. But I think it also worked well because I prepared for the lesson below.
3. Object lesson – Dannah did a great job of giving us a script for this lesson. Piper and I talked through the imagery of fine china, a ceramic {everyday} mug, and a plastic cup.

I keep our fine china in a special cabinet in the house. It’s special, valuable, and set apart from the rest of the dishes in the house. We talked about how God sees us this way too, how He values us and wants us to keep ourselves set apart from the rest of the world.

Then we talked about the everyday average mug and how it’s just thrown into the cabinet with all the other mugs and dishes. There’s nothing too special about it. It’s average and ordinary.

Then we talked about the plastic cup. How it’s disposable and trashable. As Dannah suggested, we talked about how, as ladies, we could keep ourselves from being perceived as “trashable.”

We ended the “object lesson” by talking about how God created us and values us as fine china. How we’re beautiful in His eyes and He wants us to keep ourselves set apart.

I saw a light in my sweet girl’s eyes … like she really got it. Honestly, it was an experience we haven’t had together and it was beautiful.

We ended our date with the “girl gab” pages. Piper and I were excited to go through them. We thoughtfully worked through each question and then went over our answers together. It was eye-opening to see some of her answers and hear her thoughts on them. In turn, it was rewarding to share my answers with her and see a genuine interest from her in what I had to say. We promised to help keep each other accountable and finished our date in prayer.

I’m so thankful for Dannah’s wisdom, insight, guide, and encouragement through this resource. And I can’t wait ’til my next great date with Piper!

I love this note Dannah sent to encourage us all …

“One of the best things we as moms can do for our girls is to spend time with them—lots of time. Your daughter faces a daily battle against a culture that is pushing her to grow up too fast and you are a prime influence in the direction she takes in life. So, moms, I commend you for making these dates with your daughter a priority in your life and I encourage you to stay the course. You are making an eternal difference in the life of your precious girl!”

Alright moms … it’s your turn … we’d love to hear from you! We encourage you to link up below, or leave a comment telling us how your great date went with your sweet girl!

I'm a child of God, redeemed, and momma to four vivacious daughters. I'm a writer, blogger, twitterer, and instagramer, living with MS. I'm passionate about finding hidden blessings in the trials of life and living it out in an honest and open way, while encouraging those around me to believe in better! you can chat with me here @tmstier, be encouraged here tracie stier-johnson, and find my e-books here 31 days of faith and here 31 days of forgiveness.

Tracie

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