“Mom, am I beautiful?” I feel like I hear this question a 1000 times a week from my four year old. I am sure she does not really ask it that many times, but she asks it often enough that it has started to bother me.
From the time she was a newborn until now everyone we meet tells us how beautiful she looks. She can be dirty and sweaty from playing and still be told that she is beautiful by total strangers. On more than one occasion strangers have come up and handed me business cards telling me they want to photograph her or work with her in other ways. I can not take her anywhere without hearing how beautiful she is. Its nice and scary at the same time.
The truth is she is a beautiful girl. I think it has something to do with her eyes and that big smile. However, I do not want her to find her self-worth and self-confidence in her outside beauty. David and I are trying to instill in her that outward beauty is not what is important. We want her to know that true beauty comes from within.
Over the past few weeks Madilyn has been having a bad attitude and behaving like a typical 4 year old. She asked me a few days ago, “do I look pretty?” My response to her was, “right now because you are acting ugly you are not being pretty or beautiful. Being beautiful is not only about how you look but it is about how you act and how you treat others.” She really did not like that answer.
I think that one of the first Bible verses I have her memorize will be this passage from 1st Samuel:
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”- 1 Samuel 16:7
I want my daughter to realize that outward appearance means nothing, that the only thing that matters is what is in our hearts.