Agape Girls
Living God’s Love through our Friendships
"The purpose of the Agape Girls is to deepen character and define values while providing fun activities that promote friendships, class spirit and the opportunity for Moms to teach Christ centered values and life lessons to their daughters and their friends."
Agape Girls
Our Name
Agape
· Greek word
· A spiritual, friendship love not a physical love
· A love that accepts everyone for who they are (Unconditional love)
· A selfless and enduring love
Core Values and Foundational Principles
Character Development
· Life Lessons will tie in with the fun activity
· Real life experiences and stories will make the lessons stick
· We will be proactive and will cover issues that the girls are dealing with at the time.
· Each lesson will be based on a Biblical truth.
Character doesn’t develop in a day. It takes time to integrate truth into our lives at a deep level. It also is learned best through example: more often we imitate what people do not what they say… your actions speak louder than your words. Moms will share their life experiences and stories to make the lessons more real and interesting. Over time, our every-day actions will be consistent with what we are promoting. Agape Girls is not a formal Bible Study or Youth Group, however all truths, core values and Life Lessons will be Christ-centered.
Fun
· Social activities are necessary to achieving the purpose of the group.
· Team building activities provide a wonderful forum for learning.
· Having fun together breaks down barriers and promotes friendships.
· Laughter brings unity, healing, and bonding.
· Creativity is a universal blessing to everyone.
Without the fun factor we will lose the audience! We will focus on building good relationships through spending purposeful time together doing creative fun activities. We will have more fun than going to the movie, eating out, going to the mall or getting a manicure because our activities will be special to the group, they will be fun and creative and will meet relationships needs. Joy will be seen in the Agape Girls.
Relationships
· Between girls and each other
· Between mother and daughters
· Between mothers and their daughter’s friends
· Between mothers
It’s all about the relationships! Character development and learning takes place best in the presence of good trusting relationships. Mothers will be mothers and girlfriends will be girlfriends; there is a distinct difference between the two relationships. Girls need the solid foundation of a caring mother to teach life lessons and how to have good relationships. The girls also need their girlfriends to be girlfriends in order to fulfill that social role and need. Too many times the mothers try to be their daughter’s girlfriend. Mothers will get to know the other girls in the class and the mothers will get to know each other, forming a good basis for accountability.
Girls can be mean; it is a natural tendency to gossip and be competitive. We believe that it is difficult to be mean to someone when you have shared fun team building activities and when you have hear each others stories, (and when their Mom has made you brownies at a mystery sleep-over!). By getting to know the other mothers too, we believe that relationships will be deepened and enriched between the girls. Every relationship that lasts is built on communication rooted in trust. We will seek activities that promote communication and trust.
Personal worth
· A reflection of what you think about yourself on the inside and what you do on the outside
· Our self image effects everything we do and is important
· Our self worth can’t be manufactured by others but must be defined by God’s truth about us.
· Self esteem not an over-the-top love of self; it is an unwavering sense of value, respect, care for self, worth and a healthy God-given self image
A healthy self-image is increased by the commitments that an individual makes to herself and keeps. Self Image is not something that is done for us but is a belief we have about ourselves that we create … thus, it is really ‘self’ esteem. Self esteem is not self-promotion, self-glorification or self-centeredness. Self Esteem can’t be built by heaping on praise or eliminating criticism or by making certain that the environment is never negative or critical or mean. However, Moms can partner with their daughters when the ups and downs of life occur that teach all of us how to ‘fall’ and how to ‘get back up’. We would like to see self esteem increase during this critical developmental stage so our daughters will have the confidence and courage to make good choices.
Friendships
· True friendship: The Golden Rule
· Learn how to be a good friend
· Learn how to overcome conflict in friendships
· Learn about unconditional Agape love
Life is full of friendships, yet we never get trained on how to be a good friend. Relationships are built and strengthened through sharing our thoughts and feelings with others and through sharing fun activities together. These positive experiences will result in great memories to be enjoyed for a lifetime. Our goal: genuine true lasting friendships will emerge through the group and selfish behavior will diminish
Of course there will be girls who develop deeper friendships with each other. Example: it is OK not to invite the whole group to your birthday party! But, in general we will not recognize ‘cliques’, nor will we label popular vs. not popular girls.
Belonging
· Every girl in the class will naturally belong to the group
· No one will be left out or slip through the cracks
· All will be encouraged, but not required, to participate in the group activities
· There will be strength derived from association with the group
· No one will be alone
· Each girl will see how her unique gifts benefit the group as a whole
Everyone in the class will be welcomed and accepted in the Agape Girls group. Membership is not earned; everyone in the class is invited.
Transparency
· Activities will focus on getting to know each other beyond a superficial level
· You will be really known and accepted for you who are
· You will be loved for who you are and will know you are loved
· Moms will learn to be transparent in their lessons and examples
Everyone has the desire to be known and still loved for who they really are. This desire to be known can only be accomplished by spending time getting to know each other in a real purposeful way. Through story telling and sharing we will reach a deeper level of communication and accomplish the goal of being transparent.
Integrity
· High expectations and honesty in all areas will be our goal
· The Character Triangle will be our model
· Trust will be built through integrity
· Questionable activities will be left out
The Agape Girls will promote the idea of holding fast to high expectations in all life areas, building trust between girls and doing everything with integrity and high standards. We will not be perfect, but the bar will be set high and we will always try to reach it.
Respect
· We will hold each other in high esteem at all times
· Self respect will be taught and modeled out
· We will celebrate others unique gifts and differences
Relationships, friendships and class spirit will be built though fun activities promoting a respectful attitude toward everyone.
Kindness
· The ‘mean girls’ attitude is not for us!
· Being popular is defined as:
-Being kind in actions instead of mean-spirited.
-Being caring instead of hurtful.
-Being affirming in our words instead of gossiping.
-Being welcoming and honoring all people
Accountability & Encouragement
· No one will ‘go it alone’
· No one will be invisible
· Everyone will be known
· A safe place to address conflicts
The group will care about each individual and their accomplishments and struggles. When people know who you are and genuinely care about you a strong connection is formed. This connection will motivate everyone to be accountable and lives will be powerfully blessed. This same dynamic will also promote a spirit of encouragement. It will be easier to make good choices when you know you have a group of caring people backing you.
Individuality
· Individual gifts will be recognized and celebrated
· Each person will be known and appreciated for who they are
· An environment will be fostered for self esteem to grow
The Agape Girls will promote each individual girls unique gifts, building an environment that encourages the growth of individual self esteem in each member.
Independence & Leadership
· One of the Agape Girls ultimate goals will be to teach our daughters to be socially, morally and spiritually equipped by the time they graduate from High School
· All aspects of the planning will gradually be turned over to the girls to promote leadership development.
Individual Names for each grade
· The year the class will graduate will be the name for each group. Example 2016 Agape Girls, 2015 Agape Girls etc..
· Unique to each class
· Exclusive yet everyone in the class will belong
· Provides a consistent yet distinctive name for each class
