Yesterday morning as I was getting ready, my daughter Emeli who is only 2 and a half came up to me trying to take some make up out of my little baskets and bags. I told her "no Emeli, you don't need it, leave it there". And then she said something I've been thinking about since then : "Yes I do, make up makes me pretty like you."
"Make up makes me pretty." I was stunned. I was almost left speechless. Is this what a 2 year old already has in her mind as the image of beauty? Can my getting ready routine on the weekends really have her thinking that make up makes us pretty? That's certainly not what I want to teach her. Thankfully, my husband was there and helped me reassure her she's beautiful because she is Emeli, not because she puts on makeup.
Personally, I love makeup. I buy it, I use it, I admire it, I even want to pursue a career in cosmetology. I think all women could benefit from it. It enhances and highlights your features. It makes you look awake, like you care about your appearance. It adds to what you already have and I rarely go a day without it. But I definitely dont need it to feel beautiful.
Beauty in our culture is defined by what you see in magazines...on the tv, and in movies and music. Size 2-4 girls, with fabulous hair and make up to cover up every imperfection. But what if we were to teach our daughters, nieces and young ladies that beauty comes from within?
Makeup cannot change your attitude, your morals, your personality. Your beauty should show everytime you speak, by being caring, being kind, and having manners. Your beauty is made up by the things that make you You. The way you look at life, the way you treat others, how much you give of you, your compassion, your laughter, your likes and dislikes. This is what's beautiful...what's So deep inside of you that make up cannot mask or cover up. And no matter how much you try if you're self center, self absorbed, greedy, envious and quarrelsome...that's something all the make up in the world cannot cover up.
We all know first appearances matter. That's usually when we think to ourselves whether a woman is attractive or not. It maybe her hair, her smile...or her makeup, something that catches your eye. But once you get to talking to someone, all that physical beauty is not going to matter if there's nothing beautiful coming out of their heart.
As I raise my daughter, I can only teach her that she is beautiful not because of her clothes, her accessories or her make-up. I consistently praise her and call her beautiful when she does acts of kindness towards her brothers or cousins. I call her beautiful as she offers me help around the house as I clean. And I call her beautiful as she runs up to her dad to hug him after he gets home from a long day at work. She is beautiful because she is Emeli. Because even at 2 years old she's developing compassion, love and caring for others and that's something that shines brighter than anything Covergirl or MAC have to offer.
You won't look the way you look now forever. More and more are women running to extreme measures like surgeries and Botox to feel beautiful, but if you don't love yourself from within, there is nothing that can ever make you feel beautiful enough.
Ladies, cultivate in yourselves and those little girls around you self respect, and self love. Encourage her differences, her interests and her individual traits that connect her to others.
And Men, don't look only at those women that look like they stepped out of a magazine. Make sure there's something there to keep you even as all heads south and that face gets wrinkly...
And remember there can never be a more beautiful you, and when that physical beauty fades and your make up runs out, your true beauty will still show! And those who can see that and appreciate it, then maybe those are the only ones worthy of enjoying it.
Proverbs 31:30 ".....Beauty is fleeting..."
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