Feeling Pretty.

"I just don't feel pretty today, mom" 

These were the words my 4 year old daughter told me yesterday. 

It was lunchtime and I was scurrying about trying to make 3 different types of sandwiches, slice apples and pull out pretzels before the newborn needed to feed.  But when I heard her sweet little voice say this to me, with her sad face and slumped shoulders I stopped in my tracks.  How in the world can a 4 year old already feel things like this?  Her world that is full of princess costumes, ballet leotards, playgrounds and board games all of sudden seemed to disappear behind her and I caught a glimpse into the future.  

Oh, Lord, help me speak the gospel into this moment, I prayed. 

I knelt down and cupped her beautiful face in my hands.  Honey, you are beautiful because God made you. He calls you beautifully & wonderfully made.  It doesn't matter what you wear, what color your eyes are, what hairstyle you have.  The truth is that God says you're beautiful and because of that...you are. 

She perked up and resumed her dancing and laughing and playing as if nothing was different. 

It dawned on me that maybe she's heard me say this before about myself.  The eyes & ears of children are always picking up things we don't realize.  A brutal reminder that I need to be speaking this gospel truth to myself too.  In her many years of life (Lord willing), I'm sure she'll face these feelings of not being pretty. I sure do. But I pray that she will grow up learning to fight these feelings with the truth that God brings us: He makes us and we are His.  When He calls us beautiful, we are.  His word is true & lasting.  

I'm so thankful that I don't have to rely on my feelings which are ever-changing. I can fully rely on the word of the One who knows how many hairs are on my head because He is the One who made me. He calls me beautiful.