on greeting children

my curiosity was piqued by an online article linked via facebook. i don't agree with all the reasons, stats, and logic for the purpose of the initial question posed by the author, but i still found that, in some ways, it lined up with biblical perspectives. sort of.

the author stated that when she meets a young girl, she tried to squelch the culturally accepted greeting often afforded little girls. the "oh, aren't you cute!", "i love your outfit!" adoring, pride-fluffing style comments. instead, her reaction is to zoom past the outward and search out something that interests the young girl on a more intellectual level. to that i say, WONDERFUL! i often find myself falling into that americanized greeting. shame on me. as a believer, shouldn't my focus be on the inward girl? proverbs 31:30 clearly tells us that "beauty is vain." the outward fades. the virtuous woman described in that chapter is virtually faceless. we know of her actions, her attributes, her attention to family and responsibilities, but we don't know if she was gorgeous or a crusty old hag. well, let's just be honest. surely someone saw her beauty. her family benefited greatly from her hard work. everyone thinks their mom is the prettiest.

did you ever meet someone gorgeous and kind of think they were hideous b/c of how they acted? and in the same way, did you ever meet a plain jane and just adore her for who she was on the inside?

years ago… does it bother anyone else that i can use that phrase freely now???…. we had an associate pastor (or whatever he was titled) who would greet his stunningly adorable little girl with a very profound yet simply true question and answer. what does daddy call you? and she would answer with an adorable childish voice, "his depwaved wittle sinnuh"… translation: his depraved little sinner. she knew she was loved. but she also knew from early on, that she was a sinner in need of a Savior.

i want meg to know we love her. i want her to know that her daddy thinks she is beautiful. i want her to run to him for safety and security and snuggles….NOT TO SOME RANDOM BOYFRIEND. but i most certainly don't want to feed her pride. how dangerous! building a wall from the ground up that she would fight to break down her entire life. of course, i think she's the most beautiful creature God ever placed on this planet, but i want her to look deeper than the outward beauty. i want to cultivate the inward creature that God created to live eternally.

i definitely don't have all the answers as to how i plan on doing this. sometimes i feel like i'm playing a game only knowing half the rules. i have all the rules. God pretty much spelled it out in black and white for me. but too often my own sinful side often takes over. i pray He will save and cultivate Christlikeness in my kids… despite me.