So today I received an email from The Children’s Place. I subscribe because I’ve always loved the store since I had my first daughter over seven years ago. I would stop by on my lunch break and buy cute little dresses and ruffle skirts. And let’s just be honest. Can you find cuter or softer pajamas than theirs?! But lately I’ve noticed a trend that doesn’t give me all the good feels. Today simply cemented my thoughts on where Children’s Place is headed.
I was drawn to the website this morning by a promise of 60% off and $2.99 mix and match, summer apparel, but as I scrolled through the photos of summer shirts I was highly disappointed. Every single tank was emblazoned with sayings that are our new generation, and it saddened me. Each shirt displayed things like #slay or Good Vibes. There were plenty of #goals and Girl Power. I looked for rainbows or cute animals, heck, even stripes, but mostly I was served The Future Belongs to Girls and #girltribe. As I scrolled I saw more Seriously Cannot, Flawless, and #squad than anything. It just made me shake my head.
Ok, so I’m sure you think I’m crazy. You think I’m being dramatic, overthinking it, or maybe even being judgmental, but just hear me out. Where is the world view and social media taking our young children, and why are we so easily being led right along?
The fads of the moment, an overinflated view of self, an unneeded importance placed on how we appear to others, and a false idea that we must promote how strong and powerful we are on our own. This is what is prevalent in this generation, and I fear it will be our downfall.
If you get on Instagram for a moment you will see young girls commenting to their friends things like #relationshipgoals not even realizing that what you see in the filtered, posed photos is not all it’s cracked up to be. We now exist in a world where everyone displays their edited best for others to see, and covetousness is the expected norm. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my daughters desiring what another lady has. I want them to seek what the Lord has for them. I want them to be open to the plans God has for their life, not be distracted or clouded by the false presentation of perfection shared by others.
Today we desire #flawless and #slay, not #humble or #pray. We teach our girls how powerful they are, and I totally get that. In a way I support it. I want my girls to know they’re capable of doing whatever they put their mind to. But then I also want them to understand that they are weak. There’s enormous strength in realizing your weakness, for in Christ they are weak, but He makes them strong. They are mighty, but because He lives inside them. They are flawless, but because Jesus takes away the stains of their sin. They are nothing apart from Christ, and I want them to see that before anything! Today we have taken a shift in thinking, and that’s good to an extent. It is good to recognize that women are amazing creations capable of all that God has for us, but we aren’t better than men. We are women and that’s a blessing in itself. We shouldn’t constantly feel the need to tote how powerful we are and capable of being in control of all the things. Instead we should celebrate who we were created to be, not who society tells us we should strive to be.
I want to teach my girls they are precious, but because God created them that way. They aren’t owed respect, they earn it. They aren’t entitled to anything, but they have inherited everything as children of God. They can rest in that and not feel the need to constantly promote themselves as more. They simply are. They don’t need to shout it from the rooftops.
I want them to know that good vibes or feelings won’t change anything. It’s the power of the Lord that sustains us. So while positive thinking is definitely a plus, they can’t rely on emotions to keep them afloat. Happiness will wax and wane, but the joy of the Lord is always. Their strength doesn’t lie within their own mind and willpower. It lies in God. Period. There, I said it.
Sadly we live in a society and world that tells us we rule and we hold the keys to the universe. So when we inevitably fall flat we can’t understand it. Suicide rates roar and school shootings are through the roof. Perhaps this is in part to the fact that we promote to our children that they deserve to be held on a pedestal. We make them believe they must strive for perfection. Every time we pose them a certain way and filter their image we’re setting that perception and deception in stone. Hey, I’m guilty too, gang. But maybe we need to watch what we’re teaching them, and stop accepting the world’s view by hearty spoonfuls. We need to gently and humbly, yet strongly and purposefully reveal to them a Biblical View.
Take a look at what they’re watching on television. Pause and listen to the music they’re absorbing. Peruse their social media accounts and take note. What is the world speaking to them about their character? What their shirt says may seem like a small thing, but that’s how the world’s view takes over; one small bite at a time. When our kids are told they matter more than anything they become selfish creatures. When they’re taught they must be flawless and strong, but finally discover their own faults and weaknesses, they can’t handle it. When they’re shown to seek what the world calls important or to seek what someone else has, they will never be happy with what they’re given.
So I guess it sounded like this post was all about The Children’s Place, but it’s about more than that. It’s about our children finding their place apart from the world, about them finding their identity in The Trinity, the only #squad that truly matters.
Irene Talaasen says
Brie~~ You are so right on!! I am in a bible study now called Womanhood 101 and goes back to how we are created in God’s image and He planned our womanhood and it is to glorify Him! I want to share this post with my ladies. Thank you immensely!
Irene
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thanks so much!
Monica Monroe says
I just love your post. They are always eye opening and point on. Your thoughts mirror mine and my husband but you put it so much more eloquently. Thank you for sharing so that it can be a help and blessing to others.
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thank you.
Kristie says
Preach it!! ????????
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
☺️
Angie Sharp says
Amen!!
My girls are 29 & 24 and from the time they were born we were very picky and selective as to what our girls wore. We didn’t have an in home computer until the oldest was a 5th grader and needed it for school work, and they didn’t have cell phones (much less an iphone) until they started driving (and then it was for emergency calls only, we didn’t have texting (it was an option then)). Social media was very, very low. I remember when the oldest got to junior high she heard about MySpace…we checked it out and we said, “NO!”. There was AOL chat through email with the people they emailed, which was very few. We got rediculed for being all up in their business, but today they will tell you how thankful they are that we were. It was a healthy “all up in their business”. Young parents are faced with so much more than we faced. I pray they take their job as parents as seriously as you do. I see so many young parents more interested in the social media world themselves than they are raising their children. And that is why the children are so in to social media and their young minds being influenced by ways of the world.
Keep up the good work, moma! Sounds like you are following Jesus and leading your sweet girls to do the same. 🙂
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thank you.
Dave says
I don’t pretend to know how all of what is told in Revelation and how it will unfold or when it will all really start to kick in! I think the spirit of anti-christ has always been present in the world since Adam and Eve fell but you can now look around and see the deception of the enemy at work within even shirts for kids that you are speaking of here! You read responses on Franklin Graham posts on FB and you can just sense the hate for anything about Christ! It is in movies, news, universities and even here in the bible belt I can sense it in the newspapers and even in people you live close to! Years ago there was a respect even among non-believers for the ten commandments, public prayer and places of worship and you see that respect eroding! It is good Brie to see families like yours with small children doing what you can to stand against the humanist wave we see! We are nothing without Christ! The very air we breathe is because God the Father made it so! He deserves all the credit for anything this old boy is able to do!
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Amen. Thank you.
Rachel Young says
You are so right in this post! I’ve got a boy and a girl and I keep seeing girls shirts like this, but they don’t dare make shirts that “empower” little boys. Besides that, my little girl just about won’t wear something without some cute animal or prettiness. Words mean nothing to her, and if I were to dress her in # tees, all I would be doing is using my daughter to express myself. When they’ve got #cuteness tees, I’ll buy ‘em.
Lisa Pierce says
You are exactly right Brie. The corruption is everywhere. One thing that came to mind as I read this is that all this ignorance of young girls & women wanting to be portrayed as ‘we can do anything’ macho bull has led to a worse issue. These things you have mentioned may very well be a cause for behavioral changes that society says is okay. God made us women, to be women for Christ! Thanks for sharing. The world needs to read this Biblical truth!
brieann.rn@gmail.com says
Thank you!!