REVIEW: True Beauty

Please enjoy this guest post from my sweet hubby as he reviews another highly-recommended-by-our-family resource from The Vision Forum...

In 2006, my almost 16-year-old daughter and I attended the Vision Forum Father-Daughter Conference in Callaway Gardens, GA. Callaway Gardens holds a special place in my heart as almost 27 years earlier my bride and I celebrated our new life together as husband and wife in that beautiful place. The beauty of the gardens and different key locations brought back many warm memories of our honeymoon years ago.

That conference provided an opportunity for me to spend the better part of three days with my precious princess daughter. Our firstborn daughter holds a very special place in our family. She was fervently prayed for and greatly anticipated. She was the only daughter in the middle of six sons. That made her the beautiful "rose among thorns" for quite a number of years. Following son number six came three more daughters (twins plus one) that pulled on their daddy’s affections--he has an especially soft heart for little girls. Attending the 2006 conference was an opportunity to show that first daughter that she still had a very special place in her daddy’s heart.

We've yet to be able to attend another of Vision Forum's great father-daughter conferences, but it's been a tremendous joy for me to listen to the 2008 conference audios on CD. They're aptly called True Beauty--Cultivating Christ-centered Father-Daughter Relationships.

The 2008 Father Daughter Conference sessions are available on CD and as downloads from Behemoth.com. Sessions include:

1 - Foundational Vision for Fathers & Daughters (Doug Phillips)
2 - The Proverbs 31 Woman (Scott Brown)
3 - Transitions from Beautiful Girlhood to Noble Womanhood (Anna Sophia & Elizabeth Botkin)
4 - Beauty, What is It? (Doug Phillips)
5 - Fathers, Daughters, & the Family: A Panel Discussion (#1)
6 - Fathers, Daughters, & the Family: A Panel Discussion (#2)
7 - How to Prepare a Daughter for Marriage (Geoffrey Botkin)
8 - How Fathers Can Protect Their Daughters in a Defiling Age (Scott Brown)

Listening to these sessions renewed memories of areas where God brought conviction in 2006 along with new convictions that address where our family is today. Doug’s opening talk was especially motivating as he tried to build a picture for the fathers of how important it is to have a vision and to project it to your family. You have to use your imagination a little as he talks about the pictures showing on the screen behind him of young girls and then the same girls grown into young ladies. The key theme for this message was the necessity of placing high value on our time and using it for God’s glory in the training and building of relationships with our daughters.

Scott Brown’s message on the Proverbs 31 Woman again attempts to paint a picture of what young women should aspire to. It’s a very different picture than what the world would have us believe. Doug Phillip’s talk on Beauty expanded on several of the themes he had mentioned in the opening session and focused on helping the young women develop a godly perspective on what true beauty truly is.

The Panel Discussion provides an opportunity to listen in on fathers and young people asking questions that get down to the nitty gritty of applying the principles being taught and the answers from the different speakers. In many ways the questions show both the enormity of the task and the utter dependence upon God we must have as we strive to raise our girls to be godly young women.

Geoff Botkin’s talk on how to prepare a daughter for marriage encouraged the young ladies to be preparing even now for their future roles as wives and mothers while following the counsel of their fathers in that area. He also spoke to the real need in the Christian community of preparing godly young men. The key is prayer and dependence on God to provide. He also expounded on the theme of using our time wisely and complemented his talk with a number of examples of godly women from history.

Scott Brown’s Sunday Message was recorded and gives a sobering warning to all fathers on the importance of protecting our daughters in this day and age. All the messages are timely and provide both encouraging instruction along with piercing conviction of the importance of our job as fathers. They would make a great addition to any library and should be listened to at regular intervals.

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