Trying to impress people is exhausting. I should know. I spent a lot of my time as a young girl caring an awful lot about what other people thought. I don’t know what it was about that pressure to be something fantastic in the eyes of others. But, I succumbed to it more often than not. 

I don't have any idea why we as women think we're better off caring about that. I just know it’s unhealthy, and it’s the perfect opportunity for the enemy to sneak in and mess with us. 

It’s exhausting to keep up the appearance of having it all together, but it's just as difficult to be real with people sometimes. I get it. Sometimes, it might feel a whole lot easier to just leave out the parts of our stories that make us look weak, the parts where we cringe because we’re thinking of a past mistake or a time when we lost control and, God forbid, needed some help. But, oh, that is right where God wants us.

Do we want to train our daughters to align their thinking with God's design for their lives? YES! 

Here are two simple ways to inspire your daughter to embrace her 'real' - the truest version of herself.

1. Help her form a better understanding of God, His nature, and His character.

Spend some time in God's Word together. Take a look at the book of Exodus (a very popular book in our house because Rooney is obsessed with the story of Moses). In verses 6-7, God revealed himself as:

The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. 

Exodus 34:6-7 (NIV)

Love is the foundation of both the law and character of God. God wants us to learn to think as He thinks and do as He does. When we exercise His kind of love, we are expressing His image. When we reflect His character, we live authentically in our design as His children. 

2. Affirm her as one of His created beings. A masterpiece with a mission.

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

Who God IS informs everything He creates, including His children. Tell your daughter  the truth: there is work in the world that God prepared ahead of time for her to do, and that the work is GOOD. She can approach every day, every conversation, every circumstance as an opportunity to ask, "God, what do you have for me to DO in this situation? What is your will and how can I say Yes to the part you prepared for me to play in it?"

Her life's journey is meant to be walked with God, and her story (the bumps, the bruises, the everything) is the mechanism she will use to connect with others, build meaningful friendships, and find ways to serve those around her.

Carve some time out today to pray for a boldness to care more about what matters most to God. Make a commitment together to choose authenticity and honesty and to hold each other accountable. 

As mothers and daughters, it’s when we stop trying to impress that we will start to inspire.