A message to our daughters:

Dear precious child,

Has anyone told you how beautiful you are? It’s not your hair, your face, your figure that makes you beautiful. You could spend your whole life trying to look perfect on the outside and it would never make you more beautiful than you are right now. I know you think you need others to tell you that you are “good enough, smart enough, pretty enough,” but believe me when I tell you that there has never been another person made just like you. Your quirks, your “flaws,” were all hand-picked to make you stand out above the crowd. You don’t have to be just like everyone else. Your uniqueness is a treasure.

Don’t believe the lie that sensuality equals beauty. Our culture would tell us that the way to get a man is to lure him with our body, a seductive smile, a flip of our hair. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but one day your body will be old, your smile will be encased by wrinkles and your hair will be flipping out in all the wrong directions. If you place all your security in your outward appearance one day you will find yourself lacking.

You don’t have to be sexy to be beautiful. Desired does not equal loved. Just because a man wants to spend the night with you doesn’t mean he wants to spend his life with you. It’s a harsh truth, but someone needs to be honest.

I wish I could protect you from a society that says you should be a size two, from music that says that guys only like a girl that pleases them, from clothing that encourages you to put yourself on display.

You are beautiful because you were made that way by a Creator who loves you. Who formed you while you were in your mother’s body. He knew what He was doing and He loves you more than you could ever know.