Still Learning to Embrace Our Beauty

Just being silly.

My nieces and my husband. Just being silly, yet again.

BOTH OF my nieces are ALL natural now.  Woohoo!

T

Passion

& Me.

P.S. We're all still loving it and learning to embrace our beauty.

My niece T, just decided she wanted to be natural.  She opposed it for so long.  I actually didn't want to cut her hair beause I didn't think she was ready for this journey.  But I did, against my better judgment.  I'm still not sure I made the right decision; however, I am certain that hair grows back.  And if I can teach her now to learn to see her beauty, first within, then on the outside, then I'm glad I started now. 

As followers of God, we believe that God looks at the heart.  Therefore, the heart is where true beauty should be.  It doesn't matter how wonderful and nice you look on the outside if you are not beautiful within.  God doesn't care how much good we do if our motives are selfish.  And that, from the inside out is what my husband and I are trying to teach our nieces.  And they are learning, slowly, but surely.

But we do not ignore the media and how women, even younger girls, are protrayed in our society today.  Everyone is thin and beautiful.  Girls, even black girls, have long, straight hair (often times with the help of extensions, for both whites and non-whites).  So when my niece returned home to Chicago, after "going natural" she was made fun of.  She was told her hair was "jacked up" and that she was "balded head" and had "nappy" hair.  I asked her how these things made her feel.  She said she didn't care.  That made me proud.  It also made me sad that for many women our beauty lies within our looks, not within that which is in our hearts.  It made me sad that a young, African American girl would even be made fun of for wanting to get rid of the chemicals that damaged her hair.  That an afro could strip her of her "beauty".  Come on America, it's time for a reality check!  Beauty fades, hair falls out, and that's why I believe that God is real and the Bible is true: "Man looks on the outside, but God looks on the inside."  In the end, what is inside is what matters most of all.  And maybe if we all believed this, we'd all be a lot happier, less shallow, and could save tons and tons of money on make-up and botox!