A Prayer for My Girl On International Women’s Day

May you never be afraid to fail.

I know you try so hard to do everything perfectly. I see you get frustrated when you don’t understand something new, and I have watched you cry when you make a mistake. I know how you feel. I do that, too. I hate to be wrong, and I hate to mess up, but the truth is that we all mess up sometimes.

Making mistakes is part of learning. Not measuring up is part of life. I’m trying my best to show you by example that it is absolutely okay to not be perfect, and that learning and growing from our mistakes is what matters most.

May you never be afraid to succeed.

In case you didn’t know, I think you are special. You are confident and passionate about what you believe. I don’t know exactly how these traits will play out in your future, but they will serve you well. Right now you want to be a dance teacher or a veterinarian. (I think you’d make a great lawyer, based on your argumentative abilities, but your future is certainly up to you.)

You haven’t fully internalized messages that there are dreams of yours you can’t pursue because you are a girl. I’m so thankful for that. I’ve enjoyed watching so many glass ceilings be broken in your young life. I pray that you will never lose that spark that tells you to “go for it,” that you will always be brave enough to go after the things you want in life, and that you wouldn’t hold yourself back from your full potential.

May you know where your true value comes from.

Yes, I think you’re beautiful. And you are very smart. You are a graceful dancer, a good writer, and a talented artist. But those are just attributes of you, they don’t fully represent “you”. What really makes you “you” is impossible to draw and hard to describe. It comes from inside you. Your true value is not in the way you look, or your skills or your talents. Your true value is intrinsic  – it is there simply because you were created with it. You don’t have to earn it to deserve it. You don’t have to be the best at anything, or achieve any special to have worth and dignity. I pray that you would deeply understand that your own worth is not based on external attributes or any time of success, and that you’d always treat yourself and others with the utmost respect.

And no matter what, may you know you are loved by the One who is Love.

My girl, you are beautifully and wonderfully made. I love you the “mostest,” as I often tell you. But even my love, which is bigger than the whole world and makes my heart hurt sometimes just thinking about it, pales in comparison to the love lavished on you by your Creator. I pray you will know and feel and accept and share that love with the world all the days of your life.

Amen

Sarah Brichetto
Born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, Sarah moved to New Orleans in 2009 after graduating from the University of Tennessee (Go Vols!) and is proud to call New Orleans home. She is a CPA and the Finance Director at a local real estate development company. Sarah lives in the Freret neighborhood with her husband, Matt, and their three kids: Elizabeth, Paul and Isaac. You can often find them roaming the neighborhood streets, taking streetcar rides, or enjoying one of the many local parks. In her non-existent free time, Sarah loves to try the newest local restaurants, cook, read, and write.

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