Real Beauty
Dear Rebekah,
Today I watched you. Today while you laughed and ran and smiled and played, I gazed toward you and was, quite honestly, smitten by your beauty. Your hair, your eyes, your smile. Sweetheart, you are gorgeous.
I know today you don’t think a whole lot about your beauty. You are a child. And you are much more concerned with horses and volleyball than you are with your jean size.
Yet, I know at some point very soon, you will look around at what the world calls “perfection” and you will judge yourself inadequate. The world will flutter “beauty” in your eyes, and you’ll become confused. You will look in the mirror, and in your mind, you will fall short. You will see your long, wavy blondish hair, and decide it’s too short, too wavy or too blondish. You will look at your innocent, friendly smile and decide your teeth are not white enough or not straight enough. You will look at your stunning blue eyes and determine they should have been green, or brown or different.
This, My Dear, breaks my heart. I wish I could shelter you from this inevitable rite of passage into womanhood. But since I can’t, I want to be certain to balance all you see and hear with the Truth:
It’s not real. What you see in the magazines, on the television, in the movies…is not reality at all. Anyone can look like the girls in the magazines after they spend two hours in “hair and make-up.” Anyone can have the “perfect nose” and “flawless skin” with the right plastic surgeon and the right computer software. It’s all fake, Beautiful Daughter.
I was smitten with your beauty today, not because you looked like the girls on television. Not because your hair or body or face met this unattainable standard of perfection. I was smitten today because you were you. One hundred percent you. And, Honey, you are breathtaking.
You are fearfully and wonderfully made by a loving and living God. A God who created you for a specific purpose. And in order to fulfill that divine purpose, He chose your physical features, your temperament and your talents. Everything about you was imagined and designed in the mind of God. There is not one thing about you that was put there in error. There is no one else like you in the entire world, because no one can fulfill the calling on your life but YOU.
Therefore, your truest beauty shines forth when you are living your life surrendered to God and His purpose for you.
Please don’t allow the world to condemn you to a life of inadequacy. Please don’t strive (and fail) to create a body you do not have. Please don’t fall into the trap of thinking your value as a woman is in any way tied to how you look in a pair of leggings.
Of course, I want you to be healthy. Of course, I want you to live long on this earth and feel great while you are here. But more than anything, I want you to do and be everything the Lord created you to do and be.
You are beautiful, Sweet Girl, on purpose, FOR a purpose. His purpose.
All my love,
Mommy
Great insights with your usual in-depth, crystal clear perspective. Too many parents, even in the church, buy into or allow their children to buy into the world's definition of beauty, worth & success.
Thank you for putting God's lense over this subject.
Dan
What a beautiful post & beautiful daughter you have. I'm sitting here all choked up by the words that I hope she will cherish just as everyone of us will who reads them. You are a wonderful mother and friend… Love you too!
Oh how beautiful is your letter to your daughter. She is really beautiful as she is created and molded by the Ultimate planner of the universe.
Thanks for this great idea to write about this very important topic Sandy. I took up your challenge and loved it girl! Your letter is amazing, a priceless gift to your beautiful daughter!
Love, Heleen
I have my post up and running. 😉
I was up so late doing it. LOL.. but I hope it´s ok. I will get to reading all the others here soon. Thanks for this great opportunity.
So sweet and so true.
I wish more parents (esp moms) would share the same thing with their girls.
oh this is so beautiful! She will cherish this! It´s so important that our children know these things.
Thank you for sharing your heart!
sandy,
i am a friend of sarah's from all pain~no gain… i have recently gotten back into the blog-world and the fitness world… so, after sarah's heartwarming post and encouragement to check out your blog, i hopped on over. and all i have to say is that i'm sitting here, practically balling, and wanting to go wake my own daughter up from her nap to squeeze her and read this letter to her (from me, of course:)… thank you SO much for that! your daughter is older than mine, but i might copy and paste that letter for future reference… it's all about perspective, isn't it? and it's amazing that we, as women of God–the One, True, Living Creator… who we believe to be perfect, and who we believe to have created us–can have such bad perspective sometimes… thanks for sharing this. i am deeply encouraged by it!
love in Christ,
sara @ weighin in
She IS beautiful! I sing SCC "Fingerprints of God" to my kids all the time. Enough so that our 5 year has memorized the song.
I'm loving this post.
You know those mirrors that Mama's put in the back of the car – that allow you to check in on your little one from the front seat? Well we have one of those for my daughter. Now that she is 3 months old she can see herself in it and she smiles and laughs every time she sees her image. And every time she does that I pray that she will always be able to feel content and wonderful when she looks in the mirror. Oh yes Lord…let it be so!
Thanks Sandy!
-Kate 🙂
Oh Sandy, this was so touching! I loved how you shared with your daughter from your heart. And there was such truth to your wise words. How many young girls never hear these words? It causes me sadness to even think of all the young girls trying to emulate unrealistic expectations that shouldn't be.
This was such a good idea of yours. I'm so thankful that you started Fitness Friday and allowed me to participate with you. It's really been an honor and I am so thankful for you.
Love you,
Debbie
Magnificent site. Plenty of helpful info here.
I am sending it to some buddies ans also sharing in delicious.
And of course, thank you in your sweat!