Sunday, August 3, 2014

For Moms of Middle-School Girls

First, let me say that you are my heroes.
Moms of middle-school girls are my heroes.
You walk with them through it all.

Braces, puberty, first boyfriends, the "cool" crowd, the not-so-cool crowd, zits, gossip, homework, soccer, texting, band, drama …

Oh, middle school.

And amidst all of that chaos, middle-school girls are asking some big questions.
Maybe not always out loud but in their hearts.

Will they accept me?
Do I have to look a certain way for him to like me?
Am I smart enough?
Am I athletic enough?
Will I ever be as cool as she is?
Will my boobs ever grow? (Maybe that was just me:)

And then, I believe deep down most middle-school girls are asking this "doozy":
Am I beautiful?

And if we are honest, it's probably a question that we, who have had middle school in the rearview for miles upon miles, still ask at times.

Judith Rivers, a friend of mine, knew her daughters would be asking these questions, especially the questions surrounding this idea of beauty.

So she decided to give them a chance to talk about those kind of questions in a safe place with women they could look up to, women who had been in their shoes, women who wouldn't judge, just love.

Every month she, a few other middle-school-girl moms and their daughters, along with any of their daughters' friends, would discuss a chapter from a book I wrote a while back called, "Redefining Beautiful - What God Sees When He Sees You."
They would laugh, cry, talk, pray and, of COURSE, eat snacks.

Then, at the end of the school semester, they had a big party to celebrate the group coming to an end.
And I got to join!
It was a blast! We danced, sang, ate (a lot), and talked about what REAL beauty is.

Here we are being cray cray.
I'm somewhere in the middle of that sea of blue cuties.



So I started thinking with the new school year rolling up (YIKES!), maybe you would want to do something like my friend Judith.
Maybe you would be interested is having your own "Redefining Beautiful" group.

Or ... maybe you are thinking, "Girl, paleeeaase. You think I got time for that?!"

If so, it could be that you scale it way, way, way back.
Maybe just you and your daughter sit down once a month with some popcorn and nail-polish, read a chapter, then chat about it.

It can be as simple or grand as you want it.

To get ready for the school year, I'm doing a couple of "Redefining Beautiful" giveaways.

If you win, then you can check it out and see if it's something you would want to go through with that middle-school drama-mama… ahem … I mean … princess of yours;)

Here ya go! Hope you win it! And if not, you can check it out here.






a Rafflecopter giveaway

1 comment:

  1. I'm thinking of other ways to describe this post of yours, but I'm out of luck, so I'll keep with the original. Beautiful! I have a middle-school niece, and her mom is my sister. They're both very close to me, and I can see what happened here simply amazes me. Mothers are truly a blessing, with their seemingly infinite wisdom and understanding, as typified by their responses to such crucial questions by their daughters. Thank you so much for sharing this, and I hope that everyone who's interested would be able to form a successful 'Redefining Beauty' group of their own.

    Christian Pearson @ League of Women Voters

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