My darling,
Tonight while I was in the kitchen prepping supper,
something on the TV caught my attention.
Jason Derulo was preforming on American Idol, but that wasn’t what
caught me off guard. What made me have to look twice were the women that he had
on stage with him. I stared awkwardly at the television set almost the entire
song, my heart feeling so strange about what I was seeing, but yet I couldn’t
force myself to look away. It wasn’t so much watching the performance as I was
thinking of you. You don’t even exist yet, so maybe it is silly that you are
what came to my mind. But you did.
These ladies preforming were by many people’s definition beautiful.
However, I think they were going about showing their beauty in the wrong way.
Quite honestly, sweetheart, they had on an outfit that I would only want you to
wear in front of your husband. And they were dancing in ways that you better
not even consider trying out at your senior prom.
Sometimes I worry what the standard of “beauty” will be
while you are growing up. I fear that our culture is shifting further away by
the day from what beauty really is. Because, baby girl, beauty isn’t dancing provocatively
in lingerie on stage for the world to see or flaunting your physical self in
any way just to get the attention of others.
Beauty is so much more than all of that. Beauty is so much
more than the reflection you see when you pass by a mirror. I know you will
hear these words a million times while you are growing up, but that is only
because I want to make sure that these words take deep root in your heart – beauty
is not what you look like, beauty is who you are.
Beauty is the way you
feel in your heart about who you are. Beauty is how you help someone who is
struggling. Beauty is being true to yourself, even when the rest of the world
is telling you to go with “their” flow. Beauty is knowing who you are, and
being confident in the direction that your dreams take you – especially on the
days when you want to throw in the towel. Beauty is being a true, genuine
friend. Beauty is always giving 100%, and never settling for less than your
best. Beauty, my dear, is so much more than what the world will tell you that
it is.
That is why I want you to know the most important definition
of beauty. I want you to know what Jesus has to say about beauty. And on days
when you don’t feel like you “line up” with the definition that the world is
giving you of beauty, I want you to line yourself up with His definition of beauty.
Because, after all, what He says about you is more important than what anyone else will ever say about you.
“ What matters is not your outer appearance—the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes—but your inner disposition. Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in." - I Peter 3:3-4
"Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised." - Proverbs 31:30
I love you, baby girl.
