God’s Design for Our Bodies
All people are made in the image and likeness of God. No other creature on Earth is anywhere close
to looking or being like God, except for humans. We are not completely like God but we have a
lot of God’s traits—it is kind of like when a baby is born and everyone wants
to know which family member the baby looks like or sleeps like or smiles
like. Men are like God because they are
generally, physically strong; they are called to protect others; they are hard
workers and have voices that get noticed even in noisy situations because they
are deep and full. Men are called to be
fathers. Women are special, too. We are designed to be part of creating new
people, we nurture and care for young, usually we are able to keep track of
many things at once and like to talk and share.
Together, women and men show you what God Himself is like—He can do all
these things, but He gave us each other so that when we come together we can
worship Him in a very special way. This
is called marriage, a husband and wife’s love for each other and how they
create, care for, and nurture their children is a special way of serving God.
Before anyone knew that you were going to be a new person in
this world, God knew. He was there at
the second that you came to be. He gave
you an immortal soul in that instant and decided exactly who you would be and
how your life would go. Before anyone
decided what your name would be or when you would be baptized or what special
clothes you would need, God had already planned every one of your days on
Earth. God decided that each of you
would be born a girl. Everyone has a
purpose and mission, a reason that God brought you here. We will talk more about finding that reason
in a little bit, but let’s talk about a mission that each of you have, one that
each of us moms had, too. Girls are
designed to become women. Before you
were born all the decisions your body would need to make—eye color, how tall
you will be, how your voice would sound, how your feet are shaped—it was all
programmed into you by God, kind of like how computers have programs put on
them so that you can do things like check email or watch a movie. And part of that program tells your body when
it is time to prepare for being a grown woman.
It doesn’t happen all at once, but little by little, from the day you
were born, you have been growing into the adult God designed you to be.
Women are designed to be mothers, even though not every
woman will be a mother or even carry a baby in her body, all women have a body
that would allow them to do that. That
is very special, so there are some parts of a woman’s body that are special,
too. Women develop breast that are
designed to make milk to feed their babies.
They also have wider hips, so that a growing baby can fit in their
abdomen—and probably so that a growing baby outside of the belly has a
convenient place to ride as his mommy gets all her work done. These special traits make us look like women,
but they are special gifts from God that make us able to help Him here on
Earth.
Everyone has a special mission. Some of us, like Mother Teresa, have very big
missions that are well known and change many people’s lives. Some of us have missions that are big, but
are never written about in the newspaper or shown in the movies. The point is not to be famous or rich or
popular, but to serve God well. There
are many lives that can be touched in little ways, and like St Therese always
said, doing small things with great love is more important than doing great things. You may have started wondering what you will
do when you grow up. There are many
paths your life can take. Some women are
called to get married and raise children, some women are called to marry Christ
and live a life as a nun, there are other women who are called not to marry but
to serve God in other ways such as being a missionary. All of these paths are special, the most
important part of each is that each woman is doing God’s will. It is really difficult in the busy world to
find quiet time to think and pray, but you need to do both to find God’s Will,
and finding God’s Will is not a one-time occurrence, you must continually find
it again and again, because there are always new decisions to make. Try to make quiet time, even just a few
minutes each day to stop and say a little prayer and then listen to God. I like to listen to God when I read the
Bible, or when I go to Adoration and everything is so peaceful and still. Sometime this week, come up with a plan of
how you will find 5 minutes of quiet to spend with God, and also how to find
just a few more minutes to pray with your mom so that the two of you can have
some special time with God together.
We are going to do a couple of fun activities right now and
they are ones that you need to work on with your mom. The first is called “When I was your age/When
I am your age.” I am going to give each
of you a piece of paper with some sentences that are started but not finished. For the moms, the sentences are about when
she was your age, so she needs to try to remember back to being your age and
fill in the blanks. For the girls, the
sentences are about what you hope, dream, or believe life will be like for you
once you get to be the age your mom is now.
Everyone will have some time to fill in their paper and then each mom
and her daughter(s) will take a few minutes to share their answers with each
other. Let’s do that now.
(Complete pages and share—about 5-7 mins)**I will be posting these documents next week!
This is the last part of this talk, the girls are going to
start a craft that they will finish while the moms are getting everything set
up for the tea. This craft is also a
special memento of this day. You are
each going to make a photo frame and I will come around and take a picture of
each mother/daughter pair. Then I will
send the pictures to you once I have had them developed, and you can put them
in the frame to remember this special day.
The frames are going to be decorated with puzzle pieces, because life is
like a puzzle, every piece is a mystery until it is put in place, so we need to
remember to pray and ask God for guidance all the time so we are building the
most beautiful puzzle for Him and so that we are always picking good pieces to
add to our puzzle. Puzzle pieces also
signify something else. God put you
together with pieces of this and pieces of that so you have a lot in common
with your ancestors, but you are also completely unique.
(Craft part 1—7-8 mins)
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