Today after church, two sweet older ladies were talking with Janey Kate and enjoying her smiles and giggles. One of the ladies took her hands, looked her in the eyes, and told her,"The joy of the Lord is in your smile!" She told her that several times as she continued to talk and play with her.
I was thinking about that on the way home coupled with the sadness I feel over how teenage girls communicate. Sometimes I wonder if the only compliment they know is "You are so pretty" and any other compliment along a similar vein. They even argue over who is prettier. I have often wondered if they notice anything else about anyone other than the way they look, and if they are as concerned about their character as they are about how they look. I'd love for them to find a compliment about their friends that doesn't focus on their looks!
My hope for Janey Kate and my other girls isn't that they are pretty, gorgeous, or beautiful. They are all beautiful on the outside, but that isn't what I want them to concern themselves with or to be the number one thing people notice about them. My hope is that they have "The joy of the Lord" in their smile and their actions. My hope is that their sufficiency is in Christ and not in how they look. When people see them my hope is that they see "The joy of the Lord" in them and not just another pretty face.
4 comments:
Hmmm, this seems to be most of the compliments I give the young ladies in our church, though (you know!) I am far away from the teenage years. Sometimes its hard with someone you don't know well (which is true for most of the teenagers - and some are hard to get to know) to find something genuine beyond the obvious surface things to compliment. So hmmm, you can do a blog post about the sorts of things we can encourage our teenage girls with, when we want to say "You look so pretty today!" or "I love your hair that way." mmm'kay?
And here I just said "hey beautifuls" to you and JK after church. I'm embarrassed now.
Caroline, I'll try to revisit this in a day or two, but I consider what you said today as a greeting or term of endearment.
Thanks, yes, I meant it that way. But I'm still wondering what to say to these girls that I know but don't really know. :)
I struggle with fruit of the spirit compliments...as I call them. :) It's easy to say "your dress is pretty" or "your hair is cute today."
I had to send out postcards to 8 of our AHG girls and really prayed about what to say! I finally came up with compliments to each of them that had nothing to do with their looks. IT was hard though.
The woman talking to Janey reminds me of the one maid in The Help book. The way she says such encouraging things to the daughter. Great post. Thanks!
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