You Make Me Beautiful

Some days I might say to my daughter, “Hey there, pretty girl.” And often she will correct me, “No, Mommy, I’m beautiful.”

Some days my daughter will barge into my unlocked bathroom to find me half made-up, the flaws and wrinkles not quite covered and smoothed away, and she will proclaim, “Mommy, you’re beautiful!”

And I am surprised every time.

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There is a conversation going on, a conversation among our women and girls, a conversation desperate to be had. It is the conversation of our hearts, whether or not we are alert enough to hear it, the question we are asking and the answer we are afraid to find.

Am I beautiful?

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My daughter is the word delicate. She is tiny and precise, fashioned together in the most intricate of detail. She is breathtaking. This little marvel, this vision of loveliness, stands at my side and copies my every move. She is a girl in awe of grace and royalty, of fairies and princesses, yet wants nothing more than to be most like me.

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The conversation is ongoing.

Somewhere along the lines, my daughter will doubt that she is beautiful. Despite hearing it from the moment she was born, despite it being truth, she will pinch her waist, cringe at her complexion, wish herself anything but.

Our girls are under attack. The conversation is being distorted, just enough to slip through the cracks in our wondering hearts. The question is becoming Am I beautiful enough?, as if beauty were something to achieve.

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I will tell her she is beautiful, even when the day comes when she will not believe me. I will whisper it while she sleeps, tuck it behind her ear when she is least aware. When she asks the question, with wounds in her eyes and uncertainty in her heart, Am I beautiful?, I will teach her to listen to God the King when He says, I am enthralled by your beauty; honor Me, for I am your Lord.

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It is the conversation of our lives. It is a yearning to return to the day when we were created and called, woven and designed with beauty in mind. It is more than just a question of enough. It is the need we have to step back into the image God has always intended for us. It is the ache for our very identity. It is the truth, and we need our daughters to know it.

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Please join us on March 16 at Fountain City United Methodist Church for our second annual Beautiful event (all the details if you click the link). We will be having this conversation with our girls grades 3rd-6th, and their mothers and/or mentors. It will be a day to answer the question Am I beautiful? with a resounding Yes!