The Attack.

03 May The Attack.

Yesterday I helped a friend who owns an ice cream truck business. She owns an ice cream truck and…obviously…sells ice cream, but the cool and creative part is this….it’s not just for kids. She does face painting, canvas art, air brush tattoos, crazy hair, and lots of cool other things that markets her for pretty much any setting where they’re looking to have a little fun…regardless of age! (My sales pitch for the day is over.) So yesterday I helped her do face painting! Ha! I was slower than a snail in glue…I mean she was poppin’ those pictures out in thirty seconds flat, and it took me five minutes to meticulously write ‘JACKSON’ on a little boy’s arm! :/ I did speed up though…eventually. I had a LOT of fun…it was neat to hear some of the things those kids came up with! I was in the middle of painting a little girl’s arm (keep in mind all these kids are elementary school age kids) and she and two of her friends had been standing at the table for a while now. They were each getting three things, all exactly alike! They were quite the chatty group, but I didn’t mind. I had gotten to the point where I was able to intensely focus on what I was painting AND talk at the same time. (It took me about an hour to get there.) So these precious girls and I had been chatting. One of the little girls was chowing down on a sno-cone. I mean the slurping was outrageous! All of a sudden though, she was twirling around and announced “I FEEL FAT.” Wait. What? My response exactly…I said “Wait. WHAT did you just say?” She turned around and sheepishly smiled at me and said “I feel fat.” Then one of the other girls piped in “I do too.” WHAT!!? So I asked… “Um…how old are y’all?” …”Seven” I almost threw up. Seriously…seven years old!!! I couldn’t help myself. I tried to stop what I knew was about to come spewing out of my mouth like “word vomit,” but I couldn’t stop it. “Girls,” I said, “I do not want to hear that come out of your mouths again.” …One of them chirped up “Well Griffin’s on a diet like her mom. She wouldn’t drink her slushie at lunch because she’s on a diet. She wrote ‘No fries, No slushies.’ on her arm.” She said it as if that was better. Like ‘But look what she’s doing we’re not that bad!!!’ But excuse me you’re SEVEN. So I continued with my speech to tell them that they were too young to be dieting and saying they were fat. Fortunately, the lady I was helping chimed in and helped me out telling them that they knew they weren’t fat and there were other little girls around who would hear that and start saying the same things. We emphasized that they should be healthy and that they were beautiful. (They were actually…I mean they were seven! Two with long blond hair, one brunette, tiny…what seven year old little girl isn’t adorable?)

If your stomach doesn’t just ache at that story then I’m worried there may be something wrong with you.

What have we done to our precious little girls!!? I would really like to know what woman in history thought it was such a great idea to get attention by insulting herself!!? I would personally do us all a favor and stitch her mouth closed. We have let our entire culture of women become one huge, walking, insulting, insecure, demolishing machine. The problem is the thing we’re demolishing is ourselves! And our children. Their self-esteem. Their confidence. Their security. Our self-esteem. Our confidence. Our security. It’s absurd. For a group of people (women) that so desperately simply want to be delighted in, why do we constantly scream to the world… “I’m imperfect and that’s a very bad thing! My hair isn’t straight or curly or wavy! My legs are too skinny. My legs are too fat. My boobs are too big! They’re too small! I’ll never be ‘skinny’!” How will anyone acknowledge our beauty if we’re constantly telling them what’s wrong with us?

I am in the middle of Captivating by John and Stasi Eldridge, finishing up the Breaking Free bible study by Beth Moore, and starting her So Long Insecurity book. In the midst of all of this I am amazed at how much impact and how true this all rings out for women of all ages. (The large majority of them.) We are being attacked. And we are curling into a fetal position of defeat to lies.

I am certainly not an exception to this. However, I believe I am being setting free from these chains. It is taking some work…okay. A Lot. of work. But it is worth it.

My prayer is that every woman finds the truth in Christ Jesus and is able to set aside the lies. I am astounded at how strong and compelling they are…especially in our society! Someone said to me the other day “If you’re too busy trying to be someone else…who’s going to be you?” That wasn’t just in reference to my personality. It was all of me. My mind. My body. My spirit. My beauty. So I pray we are all able to release these chains and change things for the next generation because if we don’t it is only going to get worse. The scary thing is…it already has. (…seven.)