From the first moment a little girl announces, “When I grow up I’m gonna be a…” her parents tell her that she certainly will be. She can do whatever she dreams, and that’s true. If she loves sports—they’re all available. Education? Any field of study is obtainable. Career path? There is none blocked.

It feels like we have been thrown to the bottom of life’s ocean by the circumstances that surround us. Unrest, political conflict, shifting truth, and polarization on virtually every subject have been hitting us from all sides, as if we are in an emotional tsunami without end.

The feelings of uncertainty, fear, and even hopelessness ebb and flow weekly, even daily. We didn’t know it when the shift began in the spring of 2020, but the world as we have known it has been altered. I don’t see that becoming any less true in the days ahead.

Have you ever heard the parable from the Bible about a house built on sand and another house built on a rock? I’ve heard it many times over the years, starting in Sunday school. As a teen, it was pitched my way whenever my mom wanted to make a point about what I was doing in life… it didn’t work well on a rebellious 18-year-old.

Since that time I have literally lived out that analogy. I have owned a home in Florida and another one on a mountaintop in North Carolina. One house is built on a bunch of sand, while the other has a concrete foundation—poured and pinned into a rock bed.

“Mom” is the job that gets no break, no personal time, vacation, or maternity leave—because that particular break is part of the occupation. Motherhood isn’t just one job, but many, and those jobs are accomplished in different ways at different times throughout your child’s life. If you have the added pressure of raising girls, it just gets more complicated. So, I thought I’d get a few answers from the author of a new book, Raising Great Girls: Help for Moms to Raise Confident, Capable Girls, (perfection not required), Darlene Brock. It was a pretty easy task since she’s also my boss.

You have just received your first phone call, the one every mother dreads and hopes to never have to answer. The preschool wants you to know that your child is hitting or biting or kicking. That little guy or girl, who has never shown this behavior before, has apparently turned into the class tyrant.

It was in kindergarten when my daughter demonstrated her prowess in tormenting others. I dropped this sweet, little dressed up diva at her elementary school and all was going relatively well for the first few months. Then I received my first phone call. She had kicked a little boy. This led to discussion, punishment, and resolution.