I never considered appearance something that instilled confidence in a child. But I saw in front of my eyes my own daughter light up with confidence as her appearance changed before our eyes today.

I had written about our hair experience when my daughter had her hair cut off, and it was cute, but neither of us liked it very well. She said she liked it because we could brush through it and we bought cute headbands that had a lot of sparkle on them. But in reality, we both missed her long hair.

We made the appointment a few days ago to have a crochet put in her hair. I had no idea what all that would entail. Our hairdresser took me to the hair store and I bought the hair and I had it with me, but I could only imagine how you crocheted hair onto someone’s head. And I literally had zero idea how it was done once I saw it in real life!

Our stylist braided my daughters hair, even as short as it is, then she sewed down the ends, and then took each piece of hair and with a crochet hook, she pulled the piece through the braid and knotted it so that it would stay. She did this all around my daughters head until she had a full head of hair. It was truly remarkable.

But more remarkable than the technique used was what was blossoming in front of my eyes in my daughter. It was confidence, excitement, joy, all radiating from her because she knew she was beautiful.

It seems like such a small thing, hair. We all have it. But on a child it can mean the world to them. Frankly, on an adult it can too. If you get up in the morning and take the time to do your hair, fix your makeup, don’t you feel better about yourself than if you stay in your pajamas all day? How we see ourselves and take care of ourselves radiates from us whether we are aware of it or not.

This was a huge lesson to me today. My daughter stood taller, walked lighter, and flipped that hair with an air of pure unadulterated bliss. She knew she was beautiful to me and her daddy and her brothers and the stylist. I want her to carry herself like that for the rest of her life! It is so easy for girls to get down on themselves because of their appearance, weight, identity, any number of things. We don’t want prideful girls. But making sure your daughter looks and feels good as God intended her to, it really is one of the greatest gifts you can give to her. Give her the gift of feeling confident in her own skin, knowing that you think she is beautiful. She will achieve more, go further, so better because of that knowledge than if you let things slide and don’t encourage her to feel beautiful. God made women to have hair as their crowning glory. Let’s encourage our daughters to feel beautiful the way God intended.