Beauty...Sweetpea Style

Have you ever watched "Sweetpea Beauty" from Veggietales? It is a wonderful movie...directed at young girls to show them that they are beautiful.

There is so much pressure on our daughters...and I'm afraid it's only going to get worse. Pressure to grow up too fast, to wear makeup early....to make sure they are always "in style", and as much as I hate to think about it, as a mother of four girls...the pressure to become sexually active earlier and earlier.

In my humble opinion, t.v. and music is making it worse. Songs about sex are not a new thing, but they are getting more and more graphic, venturing even into the fetish worlds of bondage and aliens, and played so casually.

What are our daughters (and sons) learning from this? By the time my 6 year old is a teenager, what will be considered normal...and what types of things will she feel pressured to do by her fellow 13 year olds?

9 years ago, I was in Bible School, and helping with a ministry for young girls. They ranged in age from about 7-12, and we were doing a fun day with them. One thing about that day really stuck in my head. Some of the girls had bought cameras to capture memories of the day. Each time a camera was pointed at them, almost every girl immediately gave a sultry pout to the camera in place of a smile. Even then, before I had my own daughters, I was saddened by that. They weren't even teenagers yet! They were still young girls :(

Now, maybe it didn't mean alot, and I read too much into it, but it still pops into my head to this day...usually when I'm already scared to have my girls grow past the toddler stage!

So now back to the movie. It is about a young girl named Snoodlerella, who has crazy hair, braces, and is clumsier than her stepsisters. She gets teased alot and is cut down by her stepsnoodle daily about her appearances.

When it comes time for the ball, her stepsnoodle hires a lady to give Snoodlerella a makeover so she won't embarrass the family.

At the ball, her looks fade at midnight. She's sad that she looks plain once again, but then, the King comes onto the floor and asks her to dance.

As they dance, this is what he says:

I think you're beautiful, your hair and your braces. Your glasses, and clothes, your cumbersome graces.

And many more treasures, which I could speak of; there's nothing about you I don't truly love.

You're kind, and you're honest. You're funny and smart.

You're really quite charming, you have a good heart!

Your majesty, she asked, as a tear came into view. "I'd like to believe you, is this really true?"

Of course it is true, every word that I say!

Daughter, I am the king and I made you that way.

I delight in your beauty, you are wonderfully made!

I knew you before Earth's foundation was laid.

You are precious to me, every hair on your head.

Daughter, here, believe.

It makes me cry almost every time I watch it. As Daniel and I raise four daughters in a world filled with sex, supermodels, and diets, my deepest desire is that we can impart that knowledge into them. The knowledge that they are incredibly beautiful and precious...both to us and to God.

Now, I realize this is going to be a challenge, since that is usually the last thing on a teenage girl's mind..."well, at least my mom thinks I'm pretty!" is not usually comforting when your friends are teasing you.

I hope though, that by the time they are teenagers, the confidence they need is there.

My challenge, to myself and Daniel...and anyone else who wants, is to say AND do at least one thing every day for each child to show them how beautiful they are and build confidence.

Hug them, tell them, laugh at a joke, take one of their ideas, cuddle them, smile at them.

It seems small when I write it like that, but I have a feeling it has more of an effect than we might think :)