There’s the natural instinct of wanting to praise & primp and build their self-esteem and there’s the fine line of helping them understand that outward beauty means nothing if inward beauty is neglected.

My 4 year old daughter and I have rehearsed this a hundred times and she really does ‘get it’ when I ask her “what’s important about being beautiful?” She replies “it’s more important to be beautiful on the inside Mummy than beautiful on the outside” and her face lights up with a level of maturity and yet innocence & understanding all combined.

I want my daughter to be ‘everything’ she can be and ‘do anything she sets her heart to’ but more importantly I want her to know & nurture that she IS beautiful on the outside but it is NEVER more important than being beautiful on the inside.

To love God more than anything, to love herself and to love those around her as Christ LOVES them too regardless of outward appearance … unconditional love!

Here is a friend I recently photographed who is both beautiful on the inside & the outside … and exciting that she is also carrying a new daughter-to-be. x