A Great Quote from Sweetpea

Last night I took my oldest daughter to a Secret Keeper Girl event.  The whole evening aims to inspire young girls to live differently in a culture obsessed with beauty.  A Secret Keeper Girl, I'm told, is kind, modest, and loves God.  Besides seeing a slide show of Disney Stars without make-up and untouched photos of celebrities, my daughter saw a fashion show of exciting clothing for young girls that doesn't sexualize her.

You're beautiful!  You're beautiful!  You're beautiful!  God made you!  Let's celebrate you! 

You know I have tears in my eyes as I'm thinking that the Secret Keeper Girl organization is really a search and rescue mission.  I look around at hundreds of little girls who already face pressure to be. . . beautiful.  As moms and older teenagers dance on the stage, I'm watching my daughter pump her fists and clap her hands in that unselfconscious way I can only hope remains for the rest of her life.

It gets better.  At one point during the evening, we see a trailer for a new Veggie Tales movie, "Sweetpea Beauty."  The girls already know from Psalm 45 that there's a king who "is enthralled with [their] beauty."

As described by Nichole Nordeman (who works on the music for the film,) in "Sweetpea Beauty," a common girl roams the forest finding beauty "in all sorts of unconventional things that might not be considered beautiful to anyone else. Her friend Prince Larry says to her, 'How is it that you find beauty in everything?' And Sweetpea says, 'I don’t. It’s God who sees beauty in everything. I just choose to agree with Him.'"

Nordeman adds on, "And I thought that was a great way to look at ourselves. God’s the one who sees us as beautiful, and we can either choose to agree and say, 'Thank you. I feel cherished and loved and I choose to believe that,' or 'I disagree' and work like crazy to improve on His work.'”

My daughter leans over and says, "Mom, we have to watch this movie."  

Sweetpea should write this blog.  It was a great evening for me.  My heart knows that finding flair in unconventional things that others might disregard comes from agreeing with what God has said about this marvelous, marvelous world.