A Princess

Before I had my daughter, I thought the nickname "princess" was for spoiled little girls. I had a hard time calling Petey a princess. Treating her that way has always been easy but that word just never came easily.

Until last night...

Last night, my sister invited me to a presentation being put on by her church group. The name of the talk was called, "More precious than rubies" and focused on women and our body images.
The first story that was told talked about a man that walked 3 dogs each morning; a greyhound, a small poodle, and a lab. How odd it looked to have these three opposite dogs walking side by side. And then she asked us if we thought the greyhound ever wished he had fur like the lab, or if the lab ever wished that he was petite like the poodle, or if the poodle ever wished he had legs like the greyhound. She went on to say that the greyhound could wish for the lab's fur all day long but he had a greyhound mama and a greyhound daddy, therefore he was a greyhound. She taught that this is same with women. I have the body type that I was born with because of my genetic makeup. I will never be 5' 10" or 90 pounds. No matter how I wish that I can be someone else (cause really I wouldn't mind looking like Kate Hudson), I have a daddy and a mama who made me the way I am.

The second story I remember talked about a dad who always vowed to call his daughter a princess, so she would grow up never doubting who she was or where she came from. When his second daughter was born, he didn't use this word as often and one day, he said to his second daughter, "Hey princess, let's go to the store." and she just kept playing with her toys. Her mom said, "Daddy is talking to you." and the little girl looked up and said, "Oh he doesn't mean me."

Talking about my daughter being a princess in that aspect changed things for me. I always want her to know that she is a daughter of God and a princess.

One more point that I remembered from the message had to do with how we raise our daughters to love themselves. A study was done and more girls thought badly about their body image if their mother did. It didn't matter how many times a day that mother told her daughter she was beautiful, if that mother didn't feel the same about herself, the daughter usually thought bad about herself. I know that I have a lot to work on as Petey gets older. I want my beautiful princess to grow up loving herself and knowing who she is. And it all starts with me.

And that's how Suze sees it.