Bring Your Butterflies

Butterflies are a symbol of beautiful metamorphosis.

Isn't this what we hope for our teen girls?

Something beautiful.

You don't have to spend much time at all surfing the web to find that today's girls feel far less than that.
Yeah, they put on a good show but they are crushed, broken and desperate.

What they are most desperate for is self-respect. Sure, they all want love and they think they want it from another person. What they aren't developmentally capable of seeing, though, is that self-respect is directly translated to our heart as LOVE. We can't love someone else unless we love ourselves first. We can't love ourselves unless we respect ourselves. We can't respect ourselves if we continue looking in the wrong places for love. Girls search and search for this love and sadly give themselves away as a means to win someone's love.

They think this other person's "love" will fill the gaping hole they are well-aware is present in their soul. And each time they give themselves away in hope of filling that ache, the hole gets bigger. So they have to look harder but still they are looking OUT instead of IN.

I was inspired today as I sat in Panera with a steaming breadbowl full of tomato soup and my fresh lemon-ed Diet Pepsi.

Self-respect is your God-given right. You have it. But you have to decide to keep it.

It was a part of you as you formed in your mother’s womb. It is yours. But you have to hang onto it or someone can take pieces of it from you. You can get those pieces back but it’s not an easy task.

Self-respect is like a bag of butterflies.

If someone handed you a bag filled with the earth’s most beautiful butterflies and you didn’t guard them to the best of your ability, they would fly away one by one. Sure, you could get them back but it would take a lot of work and a very long time. And you may just choose to make do without them and live with the regret.

I want teen girls to protect that bag of butterflies. I want them to work to keep them in the bag and not let anyone steal with they were given.

Difficult task?
Abso-freakin'-lutely!

But can they do it?
Without a doubt!

Have faith in your teen girls. Help them hang on to their self-respect.

That's the purpose of my book.
And my prayer is to one day be speaking to seas of teen girls as the author of this book. I want to inspire them to "Bring [their] Butterflies!"

Peace out, Mamas!
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