A woman who fears the Lord.... (part 1)

For those of you who weren't along for the entire ride, I'm going to back up and start somewhat near the beginning... 

I was never really a GIRLY girl, but I have been a cheerleader from the moment I was born.  Mom says when I was a baby she prayed a little too hard because not only did I "make the team" but here I am 41 years later and not quite done with this thing called cheerleading. Sooooo it was kinda "off" that by 2005 it appeared I would likely be a lifetime member of the M.O.A.B. Club (Mothers of All Boys)....  I mean it isn't that boys can't do cheerleading but STILL I couldn't imagine life without at least a few bows and one set of real pom poms.  

May 4, 2006, a day that shall go down in infamy. The SCREAMS echoed from Froedtert Hospital to the halls of Franklin High School, "It's a girl!"  I'm not sure who was most excited:  my mom?  the FHS cheerleaders?  me?

Fast forward four years, nine months and four days and WOWZER!  has that little girl been everything that was promised and SO MUCH MORE!  Hannah is the PERFECT kinda girl for this family:  tough as nails!!!! [last night the Peifer family stared in amazement at that girl's diamond pushups] sweet as sugar!!!!  [how many times have I picked her up from a church nursery to hear, "She followed a crying baby around the entire time trying to comfort him."] and OH the bows and pom poms!  [we have an ENTIRE basket of bows and a rainbow of pom poms]  I often marvel at the fact that God didn't just give me a girl, bows and pom poms, someone to wear a cheer skirt, but He gave me a BEAUTIFUL girl!  I tell this little girl ALL the time, "You are SO beautiful!"  I mean COME on!  She is!!!! 

Isn't she???

Someone once asked me, "Aren't you worried you'll make her conceited from telling her she's beautiful all the time?"  You know what I answered??? NOPE!  This world with it's fashion magazines, skinny jeans, and unobtainably flawless skin is gonna knock that little girl down soon enough!  I'm considering it my mission to make sure that I build her up EVERY SINGLE DAY so she feels beautiful.

Alas before you worry that I am creating a hopelessly vain girl... before you fear that we too highly value outer beauty around here...  let me get around to the point of this blog...

Ever since this BEAUTIFUL little girl has been able to talk, she has known this verse by heart, 

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Proverbs 31:30

Our routine goes something like this:

     Me (gazing upon the beauty of her loveliness):  OhmiGOSH Hannah!  You are just SOOOOOOO adorable!

     Hannah (with a giggle):  I know Momma!  

     Me:  I could just gobble you up you're so cute!

     Hannah:  hee hee hee (at this point I'm usually gnawing on her arm or cheek or neck a little so she HAS to giggle)

     Me:  But Hannah, you know that's not what's important right?

     Hannah:  yes Momma

     Me:  Hannah, what does the Bible say?

     Hannah:  Beauty is fleeting and charm is deceptive but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised (sorry but when she was two years old we somehow got the order wrong and she just can't seem to switch it around to literally correct)

     Me:  That's right, baby.  The important thing is that you have Jesus in your heart and love Him ALWAYS!

See I know that every little girl, every single woman, wants to feel beautiful.  It's just something that is wired into us.  And I want MY little girl to have that need fulfilled.  I don't want her to grow up thinking she is too fat, too short, too pimply, too, too, too! BUT so much more than that, I want her to know DEEP IN HER HEART, that in the end, that is NOT what really TRULY matters...

a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.