FAMILY/ Leaving A Legacy/ Parenting/ Spiritual

My 3 Girls Minus Their Curls & True Beauty

{2009}
I love #throwbackthursdays.  It is so great to reminisce and look back at what a beautiful life I have been blessed with and just how precious every moment has been.
This photo was taken in the late summer of 2009, right after I gave my girls their back-to-school haircuts and took the time to straighten out their curls.  We even put fun chunky low-lights in Teagan’s hair that day, which was a big, fun deal to her at age 10!
Little did we know that their Mommy would also be ‘minus her curls’  and would get quite the haircut exactly a year later, in late summer 2010.  Chemotherapy is not so kind in giving the best of haircuts, but it did teach me that hair is just hair, change is ok, and outward beauty is shown in so many different ways, and comes from the inside.
My 3 lovelies are now 11, 13 & 14.
They are key ages, building their identity and embracing who God made them to be. I watch their beautiful lives and their struggle to resist the message this world gives them that beauty is all-important. It bombards them, in their face everywhere they turn.  This society they are growing up in is so messed up, unfair, and full of lies in defining true beauty.  Let us speak truth just as loud!

To my 3 sweet lovelies:

I swoon every time I look at you. You are all 3 so very beautiful inside and out.
Oh how I want you to see this!

If only I could hold up mirror that only allowed you to see yourself how God sees you. He sees you through the filter of His Son’s sacrifice.  No flaws, pure, washed, lovely, made in His image.  His amazing creation, one that He smiles at & rejoices over!

In the above verse, Proverbs 31:30, it talks about the woman who fears the Lord is the woman who is to be praised for her true beauty.

This fear is not:

“dreadful anxiety in which someone is frightened by the clear and present danger that is represented by another person. It’s not the kind of fear that a slave would have at the hands of a malicious master who would come with the whip and torment the slave. Servile refers to a posture of servitude toward a malevolent owner.”

Rather, it is a fear that:

refers to the fear that a child has for his father… a child who has tremendous respect and love for his father or mother and who dearly wants to please them. He has a fear or an anxiety of offending the one he loves, not because he’s afraid of torture or even of punishment, but rather because he’s afraid of displeasing the one who is, in that child’s world, the source of security and love. {source}

God is your security.  He is pure and true love.  He only wants what is best for you and has a plan for you that is beyond what you can imagine!  He wants to smother you with gifts & moments of pure delight, and give you a peace that is hard to comprehend until you experience it.

This is what I want you to fear…fear missing out on your Creator’s best for you!  Draw close to Him and get to know Him so well that you will KNOW how beautiful and lovely He is, and how beautiful and lovely YOU are.

We are girls and it is a delight to straighten curls or make them bounce.  It is much fun to polish nails and make a skirt float as we twirl.  There is freedom in these things and so much girly fun!

But…when those fun things are used to cover up pain or dislike for ourselves, there is no longer fun freedom.

When you look at your own physical blemishes and scars, may it remind you of how Jesus has scars, and those scars are what frees us from any shame and guilt that we place on ourselves.  When you see your imperfections, remember who made you and Who delights in you, exactly how you are, no matter what.

Run from shame.  Shut down the negative and condemning thoughts. Run from accusation, for we know who the Accuser is.  Flee and don’t listen.

Turn your ear to only truth.  Listen close.  Replace lies with truth. Believe.  Choose to fear God –a healthy fear. Not one that looks for approval, but one who knows the most Famous One fully approves!  Allow this knowledge to gently and continuously push you toward true beauty.

Run.
Flee.
Look Up.
Healthy Fear.
Listen.
Find Freedom.
Straighten or Bounce a Curl.
Do a Twirl.
I Love You More’n,
Mom
—————
Leaving a Legacy

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  • loveolympiajune
    April 3, 2014 at 6:12 pm

    So beautifully written, Amy!
    Stephane

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