What I Want for my Day Old Niece

Today I went to the mall to get a few new things I've been needing for a while. As I was trying them on to make sure they fit right, I looked in the mirror and noticed stretch marks that hadn't been there before and I sort of thought, "Well, the golden days are over." because it's just really easy to feel bad about your body. And then as I went to put on my pajamas, I noticed what it said on the bag they gave me at the store.

Then I started thinking about my little baby niece who has been in this world for about ten hours now. And I thought about how one day she will probably have feelings a lot like the ones I had today. I think about how loved she is already within hours of her birth by so many people, and how many people would give her the world if they had the power. Suddenly the only thing I wanted was to make sure that she would never have these kind of demeaning thoughts about herself.  I want her to never see herself as anything less than created individually by God for a wonderful purpose. 

Yet I know this is not realistic. I know that one day she will have negative thoughts about herself because everyone does. As much as we want to protect babies from the real world, it's never going to happen. So instead we have to equip them to know the truths about God so that they can interpret the world around them in a wise way.

I don't look like a model, and that's fine. Not many people do, really. And to expect that of yourself is ridiculous. What I want for this tiny baby is to grow up knowing and believing that she is created in the image of God and that whether or not her physical body fits with western culture's standard of beauty, I want her to know that who she is far outweighs what she looks like.

I can't force her to believe these things. But I hope and I pray that I can be secure in myself in order that I can be a positive role model for her. And I pray that others around her and the peers that will influence her will show her love and kindness and grace to help form her into a confident follower of Christ above all else. 

-(Excited new aunt) Lisa