The older they get, the smarter they get

Sorry for the lack of postings, but this weekend was a massively busy one with Rebecca's 8th Grade Dance, Birthday Parties, Sleepovers, 8th Grade Parties, work stuff, and end of year youth ministry cookouts! I'll post on a couple of these events since they are worth documenting, but for now, I'd like to post on my daughter's 8th grade dance which was held on Friday.

This night was extra special in that she is quite obviously growing up before our eyes..out of childhood into womanhood. Those who know my daughter knows that she is a simple kind of kid. No frills. Very practical. She is not one to run to the beauty salon for a make-over, but instead asked me to do her hair and make-up. She was happy to wear the red dress from my parents's 50th wedding anniversary instead of buying a new one; (I offered to get her a new one) and she decided that her old silver shoes would work fine. The only thing "new" that she wore were some earrings and a bra. No, she didn't arrive at the dance in a limo or Cadillac as seems to be the custom these days with some parents. She just arrived in a van owned by a friend. Nothing special.

But as I watched my daughter in all her practicality walk into the dance...and as I saw the other kids arrive in their brand new dresses and shoes and limos I saw something VERY special. A beautiful girl that stood out from the rest; tall and slender, a blend of myself of old, my mom, and my sisters. I saw a girl who knows who she is and what she wants. Rebecca does not care to put on airs like the rest of us; she does not try to be someone she isn't; she is beautiful as she is and she teaches me more about honesty and truth than most adults. She reminds me through her simplicity that our natural selves are more beautiful and beautifully made--created by God--- than anything we could ever put on, or buy, or alter ourselves with. So, after I left the dance, I did what every parent does when they realize that their children are growing up with their own minds and personalities: I cried.