Dear Women,

There is something you need to know. Somehow, in the millions of messages you have heard every day of your whole entire life, you have missed the one you need to hear the most. The one that is true.

You have heard the message that says you are too loud and too emotional and too fat. You have heard that you work too much and share too much and eat too much. You have heard that you don’t wear the right clothes or have the right hair color or use the right lipstick to make that guy want you.

You have heard the lies. That’s right…LIES. We are so very good and hearing and believing the lies.

But here is the TRUTH. The message you need to hear.

YOU ARE ENOUGH.

That’s right, youareenough. Please read this slowly so that it can sink in.

You are beautiful

and accepted

and admired

and enough.

You are perfectly you. You don’t need better clothes. You don’t need to just lose 5 more pounds. You don’t need to count calories. You don’t need to construct a facade for the world to see. All that makeup, all those clothes, all those trappings that you think make you more attractive or desirable or acceptable…they are just veneer. They are millimeters thick and not worth a darn. They warp and crack and fade with age.They are not lasting. They are not real. They are not you.

What’s real is your heart. Your kindness. Your compassion. Your generosity. The light in your eyes when you laugh. The way you love people well.

We wait our whole lives for someone to scoop us up and tell us that we are enough. That we have exactly what they are looking for. That we are completely and fully accepted and acceptable. We wait and we wait for someone to tell us these things.

And when they don’t. Or worse…when they once did but no longer do, we believe that the beauty in us is gone. We believe that when we are rejected it is because we are not acceptable. That the good things in us that made us beautiful are no longer or that they never existed in the first place. We think that if we were just more beautiful or fit or helpful or desirable, then he would have chosen us.

But, that is simply not the case. Do not let the blinded eyes of this world make you think that your beauty has disappeared. Your beauty still exists just as overwhelmingly as it did before. But how sad that that poor man or friend or parent isn’t able to see and wonder at it. How pitiful for them that they can not bask in the glow of your kindness and love. How utterly wretched they must feel without the warmth of your compassion and friendship.

Make no mistake. You are not less because of the rejection you have felt. No man or job or parent can grant you worth…and they cannot take it away either. You do not need to be more anything. You are enough.

Do you hear me?

You are enough.

The Creator of the Universe formed you. He made you exactly who you are. He shaped your nose and your feet and your heart. He made you and said that it was “very good”. And he has been pursuing you ever since. To him, you are beautiful. You are accepted. You are admired. You are loved. You are enough.

So as you put on your clothes today, as you brush your hair and look at your face in the mirror, let your internal monologue change. Tell that voice in your head that says, “You are not enough” that you recognize it for the lie that it is. Then remind yourself that the God of the Universe delights himself in you. Remind yourself that, no matter how many calories you ate at dessert last night, you are beautiful. You are acceptable. You are enough.

All my love and admiration,

A fellow woman