How You Feel About Yourself is what Matters

For UEA I am spending time with my daughter and four of her friends.  If you were counting that is five teenage girls I am with…five.  It is amazing how much energy five teenage girls can have, especially when an ipod is playing dance music.  Oh, to be young and have endless energy again!

As I have spent the day with these girls today I realize how many things I want all of them to know in their lives.  Especially at their age.  I want them to understand things now that took me years to figure out in my own life.  I want to help them avoid lacking self-confidence by reminding them that in order to feel good about themselves they simply need to stop focusing on what anyone else thinks and start focusing on what they think about the way they are living their own life.  Deep down we all know if we feel good about our own actions and behavior.  For those of us who believe in God or a higher power, we simply need to focus our efforts on being the person that He would want us to be.

Some other things I want to teach them are:

You are amazing and unique and beautiful (or handsome as the case may be). There is no one else in the world that is exactly like you.  You have your own special gifts and talents that make you special and meaningful in this world.  Maybe you haven’t figured all of those out yet, but don’t worry, you will.  As long as you keep doing your best to move forward each day, you will see opportunities open up around you to develop and learn new skills and as you do you will notice the ones where you have a natural ability to take them and run with those new talents.  Appreciate them when you find them.  They are gifts from God and the more you can appreciate and develop them the more He will offer you more.

Remember that nobody is perfect.  We are all learning and growing every day.  We all make mistakes and we all stumble and fall once in a while, but that is part of learning and improving.  When you mess up just be sure to get back up as quickly as you can and resolve not to make that same mistake twice.

I realize that there are going to be those who knock you down or hurt you.  They may judge you for every bump you have along your way.  Ignore them.  Their opinion does not define you, nor does their opinion mean anything toward swaying God’s judgment of you.  That is between you and Him and other people’s opinions will bear no weight at all, so stop worrying about those.

Be the superhero that you are meant to be.  Every person has an inner superhero.  I truly believe that with all my heart.  So channel your inner superhero and start being everything that you are capable of being – the world is waiting for you!

~Amy

 

2 Comments

  • Brittany says:

    I wish everyone made such an effort to teach this to young girls. I think in the world we live in it can be especially hard for young woman to feel confident, smart, beautiful, special, etc. Everything you mentioned is so great and so important. I wish I hadn’t wasted so much energy and time in my life thinking I wasn’t any of those things.

    I can only imagine with a role model like you that your daughter absolutely understands her worth and importance in life. Kudos to you for being such an outstanding mother and for sharing such important lessons with not only your daughter, but also to her friends.

    Love the picture by the way, very cute!

  • Bridget says:

    I love that picture! It reminds me of my 3 year old son George 😀 This blog is a good reminder for me today to focus on what the Lord wants me to be instead of what the world expects of me, thanks!

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