Ginny is my one and only daughter. She’s almost eight years old. I see alot of me in her. And then I see even more potential in her than I ever saw in me. Last night when she came to hug me for no specific reason, I wanted to stop and just study her face. A mother must do this from time to time so hopefully an imprint of their young faces will stay within the memory. I enjoyed and admired the little face, honestly and trustingly, looking up at me. She had the red, white and blue look. What I mean by that is she had red lips (redder than normal from the dry weather), pale white skin that she inherited from her mother and father, and blue eyes like all the rest of us and then an added accent of freckles that the sun sprinkled in a path of across the bridge of her nose.

I want to teach my growing daughter about beauty. Sometimes I see her studying herself in the mirror. And I hope she doesn’t start becoming vain. She loves clothes and I can still convince her some clothes look better than others. But she definitely has her own opinion and style for what she wears.
In the book, Heartstrings of laughter and love*, there are some quotes that I would want Ginny to know about beauty. I always want her to have the attitude that the more important beauty of who we are lies within us. It is in our hearts and our attitudes towards others. The best beauty lies in our unselfishness towards other people. Many years from now when Ginny becomes “on the verge of old” (like I am right now) I want her to have established in the foundational beliefs of her life that the most important beauty lies in our Christlike actions.
“Love begins by taking care of the closest ones– the ones at home.” –Mother Teresa
“She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness.” –Proverbs 31:26
“Beautiful faces are those that wear whole-souled honesty printed there.” –Ellen Palmer Allerton
“A kind face is a beautiful face.” –Anonymous
“Thou art thy mother’s glass, and she in thee calls back the lovely April of her prime.” –William Shakespeare
“Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” –Proverbs 31:30
*Heartstrings of Laughter and Love, A Tribute to Mothers; Terri Gibbs, Editor; Word Publishing; 1997.