My Dearest Daughter,

A Letter to my Daughter:

    My dearest girl,

You are beautiful.  You have lovely blue eyes and a smile that lights this world.  More importantly, you are beautiful on the inside.  You have a heart of gold.  You're giving, you share, and you absolutely love making people laugh.  You are funny, you love telling jokes, and you have a sweet sense of humor.  You are still innocent.  The bad things of the world, have yet to pop through your bubble of security.  You still see the world as a beautiful place full of wonderful people.  I admire this about you, and it saddens me to think that this will someday change for you.  

My sweet love, the things that I just told you, will give many, many people, plenty of reason to love you.  As you get older, and get to know more of the world, you are going to see and meet a lot of new people.  Boys, and girls both.  You're going to see and hear of things that I wish you never had to.  You're going to see people who feel like their beauty and their worth is merely skin deep.  I want you to always remember that this is simply not true.  When people look to you, show them your smile, and look at them with your genuine eyes, always.  When you speak, speak nicely, use your heart AND your mind.  Let the beauty that's inside be the reason that people like you.

Remember, your body is yours, and yours alone.  It's the only one you'll ever have.  Take care of it.  It will be a gift that you will one day give away, as I did, to your father, and then, though much differently, I gave it also to you.  Don't feel like you need to, or even that you should, show it off.  Keep some of your skin, and some of your body to someday be a gift.  This is classy.  You are wonderful enough without losing your class.  I want for you to know that your body is not something you'll ever have to use to make people love you.  It is yours, and yours alone to cherish until you cherish, truly cherish, someone else enough to share it.

You will see people that the television, and even some of your friends may tell you that you should look up to.  If you decide to do this, base it on their works.  The way they treat others, and also the way they treat themselves.  Dance moves and a nice singing voice are learned skills, and on television and in magazines, outer beauty can be altered and created.  The things that I, and others love about you, are things that cannot be learned or created.  Please remember that.

Let me finish by telling you one more important thing.  Not everyone will like you.  Not everyone will be able to see the loveliness that I see when I look at you.  This is not your problem, and it's something that I never want you to worry about.  You don't need everyone to love you, or even like you.  As long as you love yourself, and you know just how very much the people who are most important to you love you, you'll always feel blessed.  Life isn't always going to be easy, but please know that you will always have a family that you can lean on.  Please always remember these truths that I hope and pray we've taught you well. Last, but not least, know how very much I love you.

Love, 

Mommy