Camille N. Moore

There was a time when we were pretty. Not petty — Simply pretty. Before we knew what pretty was — We were.

When did it change? Age eight, maybe twelve or twenty.

How did it change? A harsh word, an inappropriate touch or exposed to too much too soon. Every woman’s story is different. Maybe you remember the exact moment — or maybe you don’t. Maybe it happened slowly, quietly, almost unnoticed. But surely if you think back there are breadcrumbs leading to the string of unraveling.

Shhh… don’t tell her.
Let her discover it for herself.

No matter how it happened. My friend, it did in fact happen.

One day I was pretty, at least that’s what my parents said, it’s what my grandparents said and of course all their friends.

Going from pretty and secure to uncertain and awkward was unsettling at best, but I believe sexy was worse.

How did we get there? Who told us we were sexy? Who told us we were grown? I can’t recall the day, the time or season when I became “grown,” — let alone sexy. Who told us we knew all we were never supposed to know until we were beautiful? Beauty? That comes from the Lord.

But in between we became insecure, we became petty, we became vulnerable, we became culture, we became bound in the lie of freedom.

The freedom leading to rebellion.

We let them tell us who and how to be and what would make us happy, empowered and fulfilled.

Who is they? I don’t know… who is your they? Every woman has a different they, but there is always a “they.”

The whispers and yells of who to be is in fact, how we became.

Fortunately… No, thankfully… No, mercifully, maybe the word I am searching for is graciously.

Yea that’s it… graciously.

He takes sexy and makes it beauty.

He takes seduction and trades it for salvation.

He takes rebellion and trades it for righteousness.

And then one day when we hold on to God just tight enough and we wrestle with this flesh just long enough…. It comes— We look up one day, one random day, and we are pretty again.

Isn’t it funny how that works? How now… you can laugh through the weeping.

He did in fact give us joy for mourning.

Mourning the women we became, that we idolized and took great care in curating, which was never who we were destined to become.

If you are reading this and you have ever felt anything other than pretty or beautiful, know, God is a restorer of the beauty he always intended for you to carry.

From the inside out!

Embrace the truth of who God says you are.

How do you know who He says you are? His word.