Growing up in public school sometimes was challenging especially for elementary grade.  You know children, young people as I call them, are some of the most honest and truth telling people!  I always said you want to know the honest truth or opinion of something, ask a 5 year old.....ask a child 10 and under!!!  Just be ready for their answer because they do not hold back for the most part.  Being of a dark complexion in elementary and even middle school, I experienced some of the cruelest comments!  Like "witch Hazel" or even "bubble eyes" to "dark chocolate" or "blackie"!!!   But me, with my quick comeback, was always ready to respond to whereas other people around would laugh at my comebacks!  That silenced them though!!

 

You see, I was taught at an early age in Sunday School at Paradise Baptist Church that I was enough.  That stayed with me all my life; not saying that I didn't have moments where I would think "if I could change this or that about myself".  But then I was reminded that I am perfect the way God had made me!  During the puberty time (teenage era), you would see those who just seem to have the perfect hair, body, looks.....just have it all and you think to yourself "if I could be like them, then people would like me more".  I would get a boyfriend/girlfriend that everybody liked, have all the popular friends, and life would be great!  Well as I got older, I found all that, that looks great on the outside, was not all that great on the inside!  A lot of them struggled with low self-esteem!  Go figure!  That was surprising to me being that I held myself at a high esteem because of what I was taught in Sunday School.....that I was enough.

 

I carried these life lessons through my life and even passed them on to my own little family.  I remember my eldest grand-daughter was so infatuated with long hair and she use to put towels or even some of her receiving blankets on her head and they would flow like hair!  She was 3 to 4 years old then.  She would say "I want long hair like this too!"  Because this is what she saw growing up in the school she was in.  I'd share with her that she was perfectly made the way God intended for her to be; that she was His masterpiece.  Now, she's in high school and loves wearing her natural hair and braids (individual) and her self-esteem has boosted to embrace who she is!!  Now, when it comes to the opposite sex, I've taught my children and grands that you are enough the way you are and you don't have to change for no one...to stand your ground mentally and physically (y'all know what I'm talking about!).  And if they cannot deal with that, then that's their loss!  You know who you are, and whose you are and you stand on that and don't give in to any temptations!

 

Even my eldest son, which is my middle child, had a hard time dealing with the color aspect because he was of a dark, flawless complexion.  But, because kids are kids, it was always a constant reminder to him during his middle school years; and even as an adult.  You still have the ignorance of some people who should know better, being that they are GROWN!  Again, even at his age, I had to reiterate who and whose he is.  We have to be reminded sometimes to keep us on the right path.  So, with that being said, just know 'YOU ARE ENOUGH" because God made you perfect according to His very own draft...not man's draft!  God's blueprints will always have the perfect layout!  So whatever the blueprint of your life is, just know His layout is perfect, so just walk in it knowing "YOU ARE ENOUGH"!

 

Love Ya Ladybugs!  Be blessed, Hazel Crosby