Friday, July 22, 2011

Beautiful Girls


"Monsters are real, and ghosts are real, too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win."
- Stephen King



Recently, my dear friend Rosemary brought to my attention something depressing and disturbing. She discovered by chance, in trying to help an online friend with an eating disorder, the phenomenon of Ana and Mia, which has become pretty much a cult for girls with self-hate and eating disorders to worship being skeletal and forbid themselves to eat.

Discussing this, it broke our hearts. Why would beautiful girls ever believe they were so imperfect, they wanted to become emaciated? Why is being 'thin' the only standard for beauty anymore?

"The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode, but the true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives the passion that she shows. The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years."

-Audrey Hepburn

She was so right. Whatsoever is true is beautiful.

Rosemary was particularly upset about this, and asked what we could do, how we could help?

Well, if they can speak out for their ugliness and their imperfection, we can speak out for their beauty and their worth.

Every woman is beautiful, not because she is worth something, or because she is perfect, or because she can contribute something to the world. She is beautiful because she is a daughter of God. She is beautiful because she is a woman.

If 'Ana' and 'Mia' portray perfectly beautiful girls in light of anorexia and bulimia, than 'Grace' will portray a perfectly beautiful girl who loves herself for how she has been created, not what she can starve herself into being.

Hundreds of thousands of girls, probably in my state alone, are killing themselves because they believe, with every ounce of who they are, that they are ugly, fat, and unlovable.

I don't know who I can reach on this little blog, but I have to tell them that they are beautiful.

They probably won't believe me, but its true. We are afraid to admit what is true, because we're letting the lies define us.

"... the truth holds the greatest magic, the greatest beauty, and sometimes the greatest danger...."
-Esther Friesner


To beautiful girls. Dear God, please grant them your eyes for just one second, to see themselves as You see them. Show them their worth, and show them they are loved. In Your Holy Name, I pray.


Amen.

 "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works ; that I know very well"

-Psalm 139:14

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