Beauty Is Fleeting

Today, as I was hanging out with my six (almost) seven year old step-sister, she said something that pulled on my heartstrings and made me mixed with emotions. She was telling me about her "crush." Mind you, she just started first grade and has already begun noticing the "cute boy with the mohawk and glasses." As she was telling me about him and the quirky things he does, she told me,

"He doesn't like me though because I'm not pretty."

I asked her why she thought that and she told me because there are "many other pretty girls" in class. I was speechless.. How could a six year old girl with the whole world ahead of her believe a boy won't like her because she's not pretty? My heart sank, and I couldn't find the words to tell her how beautiful she is. How could I describe to a six year old that beauty is fleeting. It is merely a breath in the width of the world, and her beauty will fade and she will still be smart, and funny, and quirky, and goofy; all the things that make her her. 

How is it that girls, and even boys, today as young as six years old are being pressured to "look" a certain way? I can't even let her pick up a magazine or watch something other than Nick Jr. without fearing she will see something that will make her feel any less than she is worth. Are we not protecting the innocent, pure hearts of these girls and boys who need to know they are worthy of far more than their external appearance? Have we forgotten how easy it is to get sucked up into media and allow our worth to be dependent on the world? Losing your self-confidence is one thing, but allowing children to feel the pain of "I'm not good enough," or "I'm not pretty enough" is too much. The most children should be worried about is that art project they're doing in art class at school or finishing the entire episode of the Fairly Odd Parents before bedtime. They shouldn't be worried about their worth, their clothes, their appearance, or their "status" in their elementary school.

As adults and young adults in a culture saturated in media, magazines, TV, internet and these places that hurt the children of the future, we need to be uplifting them and encouraging them. We need to teach them that they are perfect exactly how they are. We need to be examples of this, and the only way to do that is to embrace our differences, accept our flaws, and rejoice in our mistakes. This children who look up to us will never understand it is okay to be different than what our culture labels "worthy." They need to look onto adults who are walking in humility, acceptance, and self-confidence. They need to see adults who can love themselves. And no I don't mean conceit – I mean embracing ourselves as we've been created.

A Post For The World

Today I saw a letter posted on Yahoo! that could not have been any more correct. It was a letter going against the 'image' women in our time have set as 'glamorous.' An image where sex, money, and men is the only way a girl or woman will be successful. I could not agree more with the mere words in this letter, words of Truth.

Today girls have this idea that to be beautiful, successful, or 'accepted' they must devalue themselves and limit themselves to only being an instrument of satisfaction. Because of the influence of singers, actors, models, etc., girls believe all they are worth is their body and the way the present themselves. What happened to knowledge? To inner and natural beauty? A woman who values herself and presents herself as such is what young girls today should be striving for. They should not be brain-washed by today's culture in believing they are worthless, unless a man wants you or how far you can go. What's even more sad is that people are okay with this culture. They are okay that young teenage girls are watching, doing, and repeating what women with 'power' and 'fame' and 'glamour' do. If Beyonce walks across the stage in a sheer body suit with her breasts showing, and then sings about money and men, what do you think that young teenage girl will want to be like? These girls try to follow along with a lifestyle far from beautiful, only to find themselves used and abused by men who take advantage of them. Yet we still can't get it in our heads that our culture is brain-washed by looks, money, and sex. 

And don't tell me this is a sexist post: that women should be able to strut their stuff, almost naked, and rant about how glamorous sex and money is. When that interferes with young girl's minds, it's not okay. When women figures begin to skew a young girl's image of herself, it is not acceptable anymore. Women have belittled their own power, their own beauty, their own brilliance. They have accepted that they are not beautiful, until they can please a man, or they are not successful until they have money. This culture has made an image of women, and young girls continue falling into this trap of a 'glamorous' lifestyle. Everyday women are sold as sex slaves, whether it be through prostitution, strip clubs, or by men who abuse these women. Everyday young girls are forced to put on 'sexy clothes,' 'show off their beauty,' 'and give themselves to any man that looks at her.' It is not a choice. That is the lifestyle women are creating that is seen as successful. That is the very image women today put on themselves. Thirteen year old girls, girls who have not even identified themselves yet, are being sold as sex slaves, abused, forgotten, all while being misled into a lifestyle that women say is pleasing, good, and successful.

What do we say for ourselves? This culture makes up excuses saying, "A woman can do whatever she wants." But do women remember who's watching them? Do women who choose a lifestyle like that remember the girls who look up to them? The ten, fourteen, and sixteen year old girl who thinks she'll only have a good life if she pleases a man and degrades her body, not knowing the emptiness and pain it beholds?

Women, you are role models. You are living, walking, role models. Your actions are watched by girls who want to be like you, look like you, talk, and walk like you. The way you dress and the way you see yourself is also how young girls and our culture will see you, and that is how they will want to be. What is glamorous? A life of empty sex and men belittling you for nothing but a tool for their own pleasure? Or a life that is of dignity, power, and value? We need to stand up for women! We need to show that we are more than what society has made of us. We are more than our body or our money. We are beautiful, smart, honorable, and valued. We should never let a man or a culture tell us that we are far from that.

We need to stand up, not only for ourselves, but for the young ladies who look up to us. They deserve role models who can be an image of dignity and beauty. We need to show young girls that it is okay to be smart, brilliant, to work hard, to go to school, to have morals, and value our bodies, our mind, and our spirit. We need to show them the potential they have. You may say it's not your responsibility, but if it's not our's then who's is it? Nothing influences us more than the people and culture around us. The only way that will change is by us women standing up for who we are and not allowing somebody to tell us what we aren't. And our potential is much greater than people set on us.

Women, you were created out of beauty, love, passion, brilliance, and honor. The one Himself designed you perfectly, in His image. He made you for power and greatness. You are to be the ones who change the world. You are to be respected, admired, and seen as beautiful. Do not cheat yourself out from who you were created to be.