"Pretty, Mommy, Pretty!"

You definitely don’t have to be a mom of a toddler to understand and believe that the experience of being around them is completely eye opening. We all get a glimpse of their glory in restaurants, grocery stores, in our own homes, and the homes of our friends and families. They are so awe-inspiring by the things that they can understand and do despite their little size yet they are also so unpredictable as they can decide at any moment to disagree and throw a fit. Now that my very own toddler can communicate, it is so interesting to me to see how he reacts to things. What he asks for...or the demands he makes. Half the time I wonder to myself, “Where in the world did you get that from?” Most of the time what he verbalizes is sweet and so cute but not all things are as endearing, especially when he get’s on his favorite kick of “Stop it Mommy, Stop it!!”  

But recently I was so ministered to by his insight. He learns new words daily and the day he learned to use the word “pretty” was a day that he would teach me, from his precious child-like heart, one of what I'm sure will be many lessons.

“Pretty”... a word that the dictionary says is permissible to use when something is pleasing. And I think it’s fair to say our world and society has surely had their hand in what our eyes see as pleasing. The perfect figure, the perfect job, the perfect house, or the perfect little family. Another way this word is defined is, “to have conventionally accepted elements of beauty.”

“Conventionally accepted”? ….wow...even Webster got it right in pointing out that, we call things pretty by what we perceive or by what the norm perceives as beautiful.

Pretty is only an admissible label for the things that we determine to contain beauty.

So what has my 2 year old son determined to be beautiful? Where was he seeing elements of beauty that made him cry out and proclaim that it was pretty? For days and days upon learning this word he would be quietly playing and before I knew it he would be calling for my attention, pointing to something with pure excitement, screaming “pretty, mommy, pretty!!”

What he called pretty touched me so much that I decided to start taking pictures of them.

So what do you think? Not really what you would call pretty, huh? It was so interesting to me to see him point to stickers he strategically placed on the refrigerator or how he lined up his toys exactly how he wanted them would cause need for the word pretty. He wasn’t pointing to flowers, fancy cars, shiny diamonds, or even me for that matter. lol.

He found beauty in what he was proud of! He didn’t think the stickers looked good. He didn't think his toys were cute. He thought that the way he had placed them, the work he had done, the final product of his arrangement, that was beautiful...that to him was worth calling pretty.

So why do I even care about what Kai thinks is pretty? A part of being fearless for Christ is understanding that we can have His Kingdom here on earth. It is knowing that life isn’t as it seems and that we belong to a different system than the world. I long to live with access to God’s Kingdom on earth and in Matthew 18:3 He says, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like the little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven."

Sometimes the view of the child is the right view. And when I saw Kai only use the word pretty as he stepped back and looked at something he'd created it reminded me so much of our awesome God. Going all the way back to Genesis, after everything the Lord created, He acted just like Kai. He stepped back, He looked at it, and said, "it is good". In Ecclesiastes 3:11 the bible says that the Lord has made everything beautiful in it's time. It takes time to make something beautiful, it takes work, it takes effort. But then the Lord also proclaims what beauty is in Song of Solomon when scripture says, "you are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flow in you."

Those stickers and those toys were exactly how Kai wanted them and he was proud that he accomplished making it that way. So as the creator of his sticker patterns or toy arrangements he stamped them with the label pretty.

And here we stand, women and men, looking in the mirror and rarely using the word pretty. We see what we believe are flaws that work against our worthiness of being called pretty, we see what can be worked on, what can be changed, and what doesn't compare to others. We see what the world has told us should be appealing to our eyes. But the truth is that perspective is so far skewed from what God calls appealing.

What if when we looked in the mirror we looked with the eyes of a child. What if we saw what was worthy to be proud of. A woman who has made a baby. A man who has worked hard for his dreams. An overcomer of disease. A person free from sin. Someone who is fighting for their dreams. Someone who still wears the dirt from being kicked down but they didn't stay in the mud. What if we saw a creation of God??

Look at yourself and see what you should be proud of. Because those things are beautiful. It's not just about how you look. God said that you are ALTOGETHER beautiful. Your heart, your mind, your drive, your will, your purpose, your compassion, your strength, your friendship, your accomplishments. These are all things in which you have worked for. All things in which make up who you are. Don't discount them when you go to stamp a label on yourself. See that the Lord has made a beautiful masterpiece. Intertwined with things the world may label good or bad but that God says is altogether beautiful. He has created you exactly the way He had planned. And when He looks at you He steps back and with a sigh of awe says "it is good."

We all know when we feel pretty is when we feel most confident. If I know I look pretty I move through a room with a grace that I wouldn't have if I was carrying embarrassment or shame. I glow with a sparkle that doesn't come when I am disappointed or lacking confidence.

No matter what the world says, to the conventional ways of God's kingdom you withhold elements of beauty. And you my friend, are worthy to be called pretty.