What I learned from the beauty pageant

 

First of all I want to say how amazingly beautiful my daughter is inside and out. She really is an amazing girl.

I have always had strong feelings about beauty pageants, so when I decided to let Hailey do this one I was in shock. What had come over me? Well, there was the whole this was for a good cause, and she would love it thing. But other than that? Anyway, this was not your typical pageant. This pageant was put on for special needs girls. They made a category for each girl so that they all won, and really went out of their way to make each girl feel really special. And let me tell you, each girl felt like a queen for the day including my Hailey. Over all I’m glad we participated. Will we participate again no. I wanted to share a few things with you that I gleaned from our experience good and bad. (please note these thoughts are in no way a negative to the director of the pageant who, is an amazing woman with an amazing heart, and who did a wonderful job putting this pageant together)

Some of the things I thought were wonderful about the pageant was that some of these girl may never have had this opportunity otherwise.  It was also a good time for me to do  something really girly with Hailey. It was wonderful to see how people donated their time and money to make this possible for the girls. Dresses were donated, photography donated, hair and make up done for free. That was awesome. I know that some of the girls felt so special and it was great for them to have a day to feel like the prettiest person in the world. They may not have that any other time. it was also nice for the mom’s to know that their girls can do “normal” things once in a while. I met some incredibly strong ladies there.

Though there was a lot of positive, there were also some things that stuck out in my head as not good things. I want to go ahead and say that I’m not saying you shouldn’t do pageants, but if you do there are some things you may want to think about.

I heard someone say, “Some of these girls are pretty enough to be in an ordinary pageant.” It made my stomach turn. How sad that we live in a society that puts so much thought into what beauty is. Outward beauty I mean. How sad that there were so many parents who feel that their daughters could not participate in an ordinary pageant, and how sad that society has made them feel that way. My own daughter was feeling like she had never been so pretty. The thought and work and heart behind this pageant was so awesome, but it shouldn’t have been needed. I know that it would take a miracle for that mind set to change. With media blasting it in every corner.

Knowing I could never take on the whole world on this issue, I started to think about what I could do in my own home.  The Lord revealed to me that I put to much emphasis on outer beauty. I’m always saying what a beautiful outfit, dress, hair style, smile, eyes, etc. she has. She does have those things, and it’s not wrong for me to say them, I just really feel the Lord leading me to change my wording in some other  area’s to help teach inner beauty. Like, when she share’s we would normally say, “good job sharing” but I feel like we should say something about how the sharing was beautiful. If I let her know those things that show inner beauty are also beautiful on the inside she may “get it”. I will now start saying things like, “I saw you do something really beautiful, thank you for sharing with your brother”, “You know, it really showed true beauty when you told the truth”. I know it may seem silly to change the wording to include words we would normally use to compliment outward beauty. But, I really think if we did that more girls would realize there is more to being pretty than make up and high heels. KWIM? 

Over all I’m glad we did the pageant. I am thankful to the Lord for revealing to me the need to combat this world view of beauty. So there are a few of my thought. I hope they helped someone.