In recent months local news stories of female criminals have caught my attention. One woman found guilty of multiple robberies was seven months pregnant. Another toted her toddler as she committed theft. Still another disguised herself as a teenage boy and lured teenage girls to bed with her. As I heard each of these stories, I was struck by a number of thoughts. Why are women involved such crimes? Doesn’t committing criminal acts with one’s children in tow (in utero or otherwise) go against a mother’s instinct to protect and nurture? What has become of womanhood today? And what does this mean for girls who are learning what it means to be women?

Women of God have been commanded to pass on to the girls in our lives the true meaning of womanhood. “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women…”(Titus 2:3-4a ESV)

While I realize that the female criminals I’ve noticed in the news recently probably aren’t concerned with God’s commands, I am reminded of the battle mature godly women have been called to fight. For those us of who have been given the privilege to work with girls, this means battling against ideas that women can live as they please, devalue motherhood, dress and act as men, or perform whatever sexual acts they’d like with whomever they’d like. Will we sit back and let our girls be influenced by these notions or will we fight the battle “to teach what is good” and train girls to be godly women?

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:10-12 ESV)