"Beauty is not defined by a number on the scale, a premanufactured clothing size, an hourglass shape, washboard abs, slender thighs, big boobs, a J-Lo butt, pouty Angelina Jolie lips, a pair of designer low-rise jeans, a cleavage-baring top, a sassy new haircut, a clear complexion, an anti wrinkle cream, or a surgical procedure. While some of the above may garner catcalls from men, they don't impress God in the least."--Vicki Courtney, Five Conversations You Must Have with Your Daughter
I found this on a friends FB page the other day and it made me think. What am I teaching my daughter about how much God loves her for who she is and not what society has determined for her?
When I found out I was having a girl my hope and prayers for her life were that she would grow up to be an indivitual who understands that God loves her for who she is and he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for her just the way she is not for who she feels she should be. I struggle so much with body image and comparing myself to others that I did and do not want that for my daughter.
I look at Ella's sassy personality and I know that she has all these things. I mean what better example can I give than the fact she will only wear boy clothes to school. I let her because I want her to know that I love her for her not for how cute the frilly dresses are that she COULD wear or how precious she would look in the braids I COULD put in her hair. I love Ella for her emapathetic personality the way she can read people's emotions like no other six year old I have ever met. The fact that she loves Jesus and accepted him into her heart when she was four and understood it and ever since is always thinking of ways she can share Jesus with others and worries what would happen if the ones she loves don't accept him as well. I love her for all these things. Yet..yes there is a yet the mommy shame moment that so many moms know. The one that comes when you realize what you teach and what you think are not always the same. Yet when we are in public if I think people are judging her for wearing boys clothes I tell them that that is the only thing she will wear. I make sure that people know I don't pick out her clothes. If I truly believe what I am trying to instill in my daughter she does not need to hear me make excuses for why I let her wear her brothers clothes. Let people think what they want. I am ok with that. If they are judging her than let them because my daughters confindence is so much more important than what others think of me and what my six year old wears. I think we all need to watch our words when around our children. We need to remember that little ears take in so much more than we know, and what we say about ourselves and others even if not about them can make them think those things about themselves because if mommy says it that it must be true.
"I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was woven together in the
depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordainded for me
were written in your book
before they came to be."
Psalm 139:14-16
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