A Prayer for Teenage Girls

This week headlines screamed the new CDC study results that 3 in 5 teenage girls feel sad and hopeless, up nearly 60% from 2011. More than 1 in 4 have seriously considered suicide, also a 60% rise. 1 in 10 tried it last year. The best response to this news, I think, is to pray…

Oh, great Father in heaven, You Who made soul and body and brought them into wonderful harmony in men and women, we grieve the depression of our country’s girls-becoming-women, especially the ones we know. In this most vulnerable and confusing time, when their souls awaken to themselves as the Image, when their bodies metamorphose into the gifts You made them to be, what should be a time of celebration our world makes for them a time of horror and disgrace. Woe to us.

We pray against those who exploit the discomfort these daughters feel at adolescent change. Evil plots against the becoming of feminine. The unparalleled gift to a man she was meant to be is decimated by sexual violence. The unique beauty of womanhood is denigrated by trans-activists. The extraordinary call to bear children in the image of God is drowned out by abortion advocacy. The uncertainty about their new womanly identity is exaggerated by cruel smartphones. These, our girls, are left with shame at who they are. The powers of the air preach the message, during this vulnerable moment that they and their bodies are not beautiful. May those bringing these sorrows be routed from their courses.

Lord, Your word (Rom 8:34-35) says:

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died– more than that, who was raised– who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall…nakedness…?

We pray the love of Christ for these young women, to once again celebrate their souls and bodies. Intercede for them, Christ Jesus, that their naked shame not separate them from You. As one of Your daughters has said, “The body is ugly when it is not loved.” Love their bodies, Christ Jesus, that they might celebrate instead of despair.

Let Your love teach them the glory of what they are becoming. Let it burn a vision in their minds of their unassailable power as a woman, the power to bring rest out of chaos, the power to fuel the mission of God, the power to move masculine mountains by promotion.

³⁶ As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Conquer the shame with confidence. Let them become Your intended assured creatures who know their worth, who envy man not a whit, who rise to bless all around them. Make them those who glory in being woman and not anything else, because they know that You have clothed them with the sun. Make our teen daughters those who instead “laugh at the time to come” (Proverbs 31:25).

Amen.