So, having three boys has been great! Camping, fishing, rough housing, (ya know, pillow fights, wrestling, kix cereal wars- the kids where ya load your mouth full of them and spit them out like a machine gun-good fun, ask Emily!!!) Boys are easy- keep them busy! When you are going out in public, make sure they are dressed ok, and that they don't smell, well, like boys! I mean there are very valuable identities you have to pass on, and valuable traits and lessons you have to teach them, but overall, boys are straight forward creatures. We had it all figured out- then came Emma.
She is truly a beauty among beasts! Even now at this young age, she has a need, a desire to feel pretty, and have other people tell her she's pretty and make a big deal out of it. She can be rough and tumble when she is playing around the boys, but when you put a dress on her, her whole attitude changes. She ever walks differently. This past weekend we were getting ready to go out, and she picked out her dress, her shoes, had to have her toenails and fingernails painted, and it dawned on me. I suddenly had such an understanding of a basic need that every woman has had since the beginning of time- to feel beautiful. The issue I have is that we must as parents, as husbands, as brothers, and MEN, make women feel beautiful, not for their physical appearance, but for who they are. Media, TV, magazines, etc...they do quite a job making girls from such a young age feel inadequate. I don't have the answers to this dilemma, but I do have such a better understanding of it now, being a parent of a little girl, who is perhaps the most beautiful thing God has blessed me with in this life.
So, after you read this, find something beautiful about your wife, your mother, your sister, your daughter, and tell them. Tell them they are beautiful, for that. Tell them they will always be a beauty among beasts!!!
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