Innocent Beauty

After almost ten years of working with children one-on-one, I have learned so many more of their characteristics than I knew when I began---such as little boys' eagerness to impress me or the traits of carefree students versus perfectionist students. My most cherished realization emanated from young girls who are still in that delightful stage of innocence...

Time after time, early-elementary age girls have walked into my room---some in perfect, dainty dresses with huge hairbows....others in mismatched play-clothes and tangly curls. After my usual greetings of, "Hi! How are you today? What have you been doing this week?," I have often also remarked, "And look at you! Don't you look pretty!" I absolutely love what they say in response to that:
     
"I know."
      
I felt so tickled the first time I heard that pure, unaffected reply. But as months and years went by, I noticed that was the standard answer for many girls of a certain age, before "thank you" had become their polite, trained reply. Not the least bit of arrogance in their words...simply the candid answer of young hearts not yet tainted by self-doubt. Bearing snaggleteeth and Kool-Aid stained mouths, they smiled and giggled as they agreed with my assessment of their beauty. They had no reason to believe they were anything less than charming, delightful, smart...
  
I wish we would retain some of those childlike qualities. I wish, when a person tells us we are smart, that we would not start comparing ourselves to the people we consider more successful. I wish, when people compliment our abilities, that our minds would not automatically point out all those areas we deem have room for improvement. I wish, when someone tells us we are pretty, we would not think, "Oh. Well, they definitely haven't seen me without any make-up....or in my bathing suit..."
  
I wish we would grasp that, no matter how many flaws and shortcomings we think we have, we are still created by a God of wisdom, beauty, and creativity. As a parent passes traits down to a child, God pours a unique combination of those characteristics into his children. We so often magnify our defects and weaknesses. Perhaps, the next time someone compliments us---even if we audibly give the acceptable, societal "thank you" ---we could simply accept their words of appreciation, remember how artistically our Father crafts his creation, and think..
  
"I know."