Dear Daughter

Growing up I definitely struggled. I struggled with my weight. I struggled with making and keeping friends. I struggled with mental illness. I struggled with knowing my worth. I struggled believing what God says about me. The day I found out I was having a girl I cried. I cried tears of joy because I never thought I would be able to have daughters considering mine and my husband's genetics. I cried tears of crippling fear because I had no idea how to parent a child, especially a daughter because I struggled so much with knowing who I was. I cried tears of thankfulness because my little baby was measuring on track and as active as ever. I cried knowing that God was healing me from words of death spoken over me as a child, teenager, and adult. The bible says that our words have the power to speak life or death and let me tell you that death was being spoken so softly at first. So soft that it almost didn't even feel like death was being spoken over me. It can sound like, "I will never compare to so and so because they look a certain way and I do not". It can also look like, "I may never amount to good things because of what was said to me when I was growing up". But also like this: "you may never settle down because of what you've done and how you look now". Once those words of death have been spoken over you or you even spoke them to yourself, the enemy can disguise these words of death to look and feel like truth. My heart began breaking the more I thought about what I believed so long that was nothing but lies and how easily it could be passed down to my daughters. When I reflect on the words that I spoke over me, not from anyone else just from my own mouth to my own heart, I truly feel brokenness. Brokenness in the sense that if my daughters themselves spoke what I spoke it would truly crush me. You see, I see no faults or flaws in my daughter's designs. From their sun-filled smiles to the way they display compassion to others. From the way they communicate and navigate through some pretty big feelings (as we all experience from time to time). Also how they take care of each other, its so comforting. As they grow they may be told or feel like these precious qualities and characteristics are not desirable. My prayer is that they become and stay confident in the Word of God. That they would know their worth and that they would refuse to allow anyone or anything tell them differently. I pray this for you too because you deserve it. YOU deserve good things and favor and opportunity. You deserve to love and be loved without any terms or conditions. You deserve to walk through life with people, your people by your side. When I became a parent I realized a few things: one, there isn't anything my kids could possibly ever do or say to make me love them more. I love them because I love them. I love them for who they are, not what they have done or will do. Two, even if my kids grew up, decided to leave, and had no plans to become better versions of themselves I would still love them one-hundred percent. Three, no matter what happens to them, what they decide to do, or how they choose to live their lives, there is nothing that could happen to make me love them less. So, I write this letter to my daughters but I ask that you read it as God is writing to you because He loves you this much.

“Dear Daughter,

You are beautiful. The world is going to show you and tell you things that are going to make you feel down and feel less than beautiful, don’t let it. Your beauty goes way beyond the world's definition. Your heart is beautiful too, in fact it's the most beautiful part of you. You’ll begin to learn that your worth and your beauty have absolutely nothing to do with what you can offer to others but everything to do with how God created you. God created you. He created you the way you were meant to be created. It can be easy to pick apart everything that we think is “wrong” about us, don't let yourself get sucked into, "if i looked this way" or "if I could do that", especially the one where, "I will be loved greater when I become greater". Jesus died knowing exactly what He was receiving which is sinners who aren't perfect. He did it anyways. So even if you have zero plans to become better, "I STILL love you the same", says the Lord. So dear daughter(s) of mine, rest in knowing you are loved. Loved is who you are and when you encounter anything other than good and kind and loving things, REST in knowing it did not come from Him. God is the Creator and Designer of everything and everyone. When you think about the detail He puts into the sun rising and setting and how specific the flowers, stars, and flakes of snow are displayed we can only imagine the detail and thought He has put into us. You are my beloved in whom I am well pleased. I write this to you for you to know with all your heart that everything about you is by design and without flaw. God is incapable of creating anything less than perfect. He cannot create junk so therefore you are not junk, whoever told you that you are they lied. Your mistakes don't define you, whoever told you that they lied. You have the ability to break the trains of generational curses right in their tracks, whoever told you that you can't they lied. Remember daughter that you are created to be loved.

Sincerely, someone who loves you.

#TheMessyMama