I love watching American Idol. One of the winners from the show last season was Candice Glover. She has a single called, “I Am Beautiful”. Here is the chorus:
I am beautiful. I’m not alone. And in his eyes I’m so worth it. I’m worth every tear and every scar and even when you say I’m not, He says I’m beautiful.1
As a father of three girls, I can easily become overwhelmed with the world’s viewpoint on beauty and what my girls are going to hear from their peers. They might hear they are too tall, too fat, ugly, etc. Will they believe they need to look like the actress, the cover model, or someone else they know?
I am choosing to focus instead on reminding them about their beauty. My girls are beautiful not because they wear the right clothes or use the right make up or have a specific feature or size.
They are beautiful because they are created in the image of God.
Listen to God’s Word from Psalm 139:14, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Let me repeat this:
Your daughters, my daughters are beautiful because they are created by God.
They are wonderfully made.
So, when that boy or girl tells them otherwise, I remind my daughters of this truth from Psalm 139. God says you are beautiful. Are you going to believe God or that boy or girl?
If my girls begin comparing themselves to the girl on TV or the magazine at the checkout counter, I ask them, “What makes that girl beautiful?” If they start listing external characteristics, I can redirect them to the truth that they are beautiful because they are God’s and He made them.
Part of my daily routine is to ask them at bedtime or as they are getting out of the car to go to school, “Who says you are beautiful?” And they answer, “You and God.”
Moms and dads, let’s not get caught up and stressed out because of the world’s view of beauty. Let’s instead teach our girls from the beginning that they are beautiful.
Teaching our daughters they are beautiful because God and a parent say so will impact their definition of beauty when assaulted by others or our culture.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Psalm 139:14
How do you talk about beauty in your home?
J.L. Martin
Husband to Bethany
Dad of 1 boy, 3 girls
1 Corinthians 13 Team Member
Pastor of Children and Family at Hesston MB Church
1. Glover, Candice, I Am Beautiful 19 Recordings/Interscope, 2013.