EQUIP Book Gift Guide

This month we will be taking a brief look at a variety of books that would be great to give as gifts this Christmas. Please enjoy this review of ‘Growing in Godliness, A Teen Girl’s Guide to Maturing in Christ’ by Lindsey Carlson, a great gift for a teenage girl.

Growing in Godliness: A Teen Girl’s Guide to Maturing in Christ 

I have a twelve year old daughter on the cusp of becoming a teen. She’s three weeks away from saying goodbye to primary school, and one shoe size away from mine. That beautiful dark haired baby I pressed my face into in the hospital is not too far away from being a fully grown woman. There are all kinds of things she wants for Christmas: new clothes, technology, but the thing we desire for her most, as Christian parents, is for her to grow in godliness. I don’t ever want her to stop growing in this.

So on Christmas morning she’ll get some new shorts and t-shirts, possibly some technology and definitely a few books! One of them will be Lindsey Carlson’s Growing In Godliness.

There’s not a huge selection of reformed evangelical books for teen girls on the market but this is one of them! And it’s a beauty. The Bible teaching and winsome advice is spot on, with the small caveat that many of the illustrations feel really American to this Australian mum. That may be some encouragement to Australian Christian authors to produce material for Australian Christian teen girls. It’s written by a mum of five from Baltimore and dedicated to her daughter. She quotes John Piper and R. C. Sproul and has a gifted ability to get to the heart issues of teen girls:

Maybe you want to be a professional singer, athlete, or artist. Do you spend your time learning, studying, and practicing in order to become whatever it is you’ve set your hopes on? Now, think of your interest in growing in godliness. Do you give your time, attention, and focus to the pursuit of knowing more about God? Or does the pursuit of growing in godliness feel like an imposition to your plans?  (p. 28)

I like the way this book puts the emphasis on young people working out their salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Lindsey gives a clear framework for how to do this by partnering with God, depending on His ways and taking time for self-reflection and examination. Asking, “Am I really growing?” “What evidence can I see of the spirit at work in my life?” 

 We encourage our teens to work hard at their Maths and English, their music and their sport, but we don’t often encourage them to work hard at their relationship with God, reading his word, praying to him and serving him with joy in the church. Significantly this is the area of life with eternal significance.

In Australia, Youthworks states that significant numbers of people who’ve grown up in the faith will leave the church in their teens. Research into this phenomena is revealing. Kids who leave the faith report having questions about faith in early adolescence that were ignored by significant adults (parents, pastors, teachers). – Barna Group (cited in Powell and Clark 2011, p. 72) 

I think one of the challenges of parenting teens is keeping the channels of communication open. Many of us know about the magic of mum’s taxi, how sitting side by side is a less intimidating way to talk about heart issues and allows teens to open up. I’ve also heard of parents emailing important information to their teen, so they can consider it in a forum that feels more like their preferred way of communicating, before following up with discussion later.

Being intentional about providing lots of opportunity for our teen girls to talk about the little things and the big things, over time, creates a safe space where teens feel that no topic is off limits and that all doubts about the intersection of faith and life are up for discussion and investigation. I think Lindsey’s book is a wonderful tool for that challenge.

I plan to read it alongside my daughter and talk through the topics, listening lots, and hopefully having a crack at answering some of her questions. I’m also inspired by thirteen year old Jemima Loane’s review of This Changes Everything (https://www.equip.org.au/bookclubfeed/2019/11/11/equip-book-gift-guide-this-changes-everything) and plan to ask my daughter if she’s up for writing a review next year reporting back on how she found Lindsey’s book.

My desire for my daughter is that she grow in satisfaction and love for her Lord Jesus Christ, who gave up his life for her, so that she might have life, and have it to the full! (John 10:10)

If you have a teen girl in your life who could do with encouragement to keep walking with Jesus grab a copy of this book for them this Christmas!

Meet our contributor

Katie loves books, baking and beaches and finds the Christmas season a great time to get into all three! She leads a Bible Study at her local Anglican church in Leichhardt. She teaches the Bible at two local High schools and enjoys hearing what teenagers think about Jesus. She is studying at Moore College.