If I could wave my Big Sister wand for all you young girls out there and make you see how incredibly and shockingly beautiful your soul is, I would do it so quickly that the magical words pouring out of my mouth would suck the very air out of the room and leave you feeling dizzy.
If there was one thing I could grant to all young women, it
would be true understanding of how important you really are. How much you and
your Precious Heart and your beautiful, sexy soul really are.
If I could allow you just a peek into the future when heart breaking experience will have taught you to value your soul more than your body, without the heartbreak, I would.
You Are Worth
So Much More
You are worth so much more than your soft, smooth skin or
how you look in skinny jeans. You are worth more than the stretch marks on your
thighs or the cup size of your bra. Your body is beautiful and amazing and changing
daily...and it is only a shell. A wondrous and amazing shell, true, but a shell none the less. Your soul, your heart and your character, the
things that make you YOU, are what truly make you beautiful.
I am just now learning, at the ripe old age of 26 that what a man thinks of my body and face has no value when it comes to a relationship. What's important is being with a man who recognizes my sensitive writer's heart and admires my strong sense of right and wrong. What matters is a man who accompanies me to church because we share the same beliefs and is concerned about the health of my soul.
Stay close to the people who love you for who you really are, so that when the time comes and you wander off track, they can remind you that you are important because of your heart...not because your butt looks hot in those jeans.
You Are Freaking
Awesome.
Repeat that to yourself as many times as it takes for you to
believe it. You’re going to meet some gorgeous boy before too long who has eyes
that glow with adventure and arms that promise to carry you over the rough
times….and dear, darling girl, he’s going to let you down. You might be 12, 15
or 21 when it happens but some boy is going to break your heart and leave you
standing amidst the rubble of everything you thought you believed in. It will
shake you to your core and leave you wondering “Why? Was it me?” When that day arrives, come visit me and I will
ply you with steaming mugs of tea, enormous plates of cinnamon toast and I will
remind you of a very important message your heart may have momentarily
forgotten: YOU
ARE FREAKING AWESOME, GIRL.
Treat and think of yourself as someone who is awesome, as a
person to be treasured. You are. And you are valuable because of the girl you are on the inside, not how you look on the outside. No matter what other people tell you, you
deserve the best. And when your heart forgets that vitally important
fact and decides to attract attention and approval based on your looks, go back and be reminded of how loved you are by the people who truly understand the true
beauty of your soul.
Value Yourself
Please, please, please, hold out for that amazing man who
falls in love with the beauty of your heart, with the real you. You deserve to
be cherished for the integrity of your soul, not the dimples in your cheeks.
You deserve to have someone who honors you, respects you and cares about your
well being more than his own. And to tell you the truth ladies, the guys who
aren’t in to you for those reasons are going to try and make you feel insecure
about yourself and your body. Because if your spirit and confidence is broken
down enough, you’re going to feel the need to be built back up. And who will
you turn to? That’s right, the person who tore you down in the first place.
Someone who is only interested in you for the shine in your
hair and the red in your lips will have all the right words to say that will
make you think he’s into the real you, but his actions will prove otherwise. He
will make you feel that the most important thing about you is your body,
because that’s what he’s into. And that, my dear friend, is a crappy game.
Don’t play it, don’t fall for it and don’t stand for it.
I had a boyfriend at one point who I thought was my very own
Prince Charming in cowboy boots. He talked about respecting me, he liked my
father and said all the right words. I was going through life-altering times
and felt incredibly vulnerable and his attention made me feel like I mattered
in a way that I hadn’t felt in a long time. Looking back at our relationship
now, I just shake my head at myself. While he was saying all the pretty things
I wanted to hear, he was treating me like my body was the only thing he was
really into. And guess what? It was.
Girls, it’s way easier to let someone make you feel wanted
and admired and beautiful than it is to wait for someone who really cares about
how freaking awesome you really are on the inside. That’s the truth. It’s hard
to respect yourself and it’s hard to teach people to value the real you. And no
matter how much I want to wave my magic wand and give you a glimpse into the
future so that you know I’m giving it to you straight, I can’t. Only YOU can
decide that you are worth it, and only YOU can determine how you will let other
people treat you. What I can do is share
with you the moments I have experienced myself and keep reminding you (and myself), at every
turn, you are worth so much more.
xo xo Liz
I don't know who you are, this post was linked into my facebook feed from a friend. But thank you, thank you for saying what you have and saying it the way that you did. Thank you for being my stand in big sister right when I needed one, and for being willing to put those things out there in the universe knowing what kinds of hatred you might get back from it. You are my new best friend.
ReplyDeleteJanice, let's consider this our official introduction...thank you, really, so much for taking the time to comment, it means so much to me :) And I really am a surrogate big sister to a lot of girls, so I'm glad to be your new best friend AND stand in big sister :) Thanks again for the lovely comment <3 xoxo Liz
DeleteAMAZING! So well written. Thank you, now sharing on my facebook page. More people need to read this!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing it! I'm so glad you liked it! Hugs! :)
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