What is Beautiful?

I have very little time left and I have pretty much failed at my job to teach my boys about the truth of beauty and what is beautiful. I didn't realize that the sands of time had been slipping so quickly! As I navigate my way for the first time through "teen-age love" as a mentoring parent, I see that exposing my boys to "beautiful" should have been started at the very beginning of their lives. So I will give cyberspace my advice and maybe some other parent can enhance their son's life just a little bit more.

 For some kids, it is easy. My youngest loves to explore and spend minutes, hours, days, examining plants and bugs. He has a true love for nature. He loves people and cares passionately for them....everyone! I just need to encourage that love. I need to share with him that the things that he loves...they are beautiful to him. Even if everyone else thinks that they are ugly or gross, they are beautiful. My middle son, his obsession is "the beautiful game". I know, I drive the soccer carpool just like you. I know what my car smells like after a game or after practice....I wash socks and jerseys and the last thing that comes to mind is beauty. But as I sit by my husband, mostly speechless, and in awe of the talent and grace (most of the time) of our son, who is usually flying through the air; there is so much beauty in human movement and the human spirit.

 I come back to my oldest. I see the struggle with my husband. I struggle, myself. This is a flesh-driven world that we live in. It is flesh that is deemed "sexy" and "beautiful". I rot my boys' souls with every negative comment that I make about my own weight or how I hate "this" or "that" about myself. Now that it is that crucial moment in time when my husband and I need to address the "beauty" of human sexuality, I think that I have finally discovered that my view of what is beautiful has been so wrong. Yes, beauty is subjective, and I agree that there are many instances where flesh IS absolutely beautiful. The difficulty is in teaching a young man that "beautiful" is not driven by sexuality but by love.

 There is still hope! As we walked through the gem exhibit on a recent family museum outing, I was relieved to know that there were still a few grains of sand left in my hourglass of hands-on parenting. All 3 of my boys were mesmerized by the brilliant colored stones. We easily spent an hour discussing and looking deeply at "beauty".

 Have the discussions! Share what is beautiful to you! Ask your kids what is beautiful to them! Our world has so much more to offer than flesh. Offer and expose your kids to more than what the world thinks is beautiful! And be kind to yourself :)