Let me take a moment to reflect on Finley.

When she was four, I bought her one of those big boxes of crayons. One day I walked in on her to find that she was organizing the box based on the color's beauty. On the right side of the box were the colors she thought were beautiful: reds, pinks, oranges, purples, and blues. On the left were the 'ugly' colors: yellows, greens, browns, greys, and black. I felt sorry for the colors on the left. How do explain to a four year old that colors you don't think are beautiful in themselves have use and merit, and that when they are used in the right way make a beautiful world even more beautiful?

Now she is six. She still has a definite sense for beauty, and it makes me a little nervous. I don't want her to be shallow. Her first week in school, she came home and told me that a boy she didn't like was line leader that day. "Why don't you like him?" I asked her. "He doesn't look very nice," she said. I asked her if he was nice to her. Yes. Carefully, I explained to her that even though he may not look as nice as she likes people to look, there were other nice things about him besides looks, and if she paid attention, she would probably find that he would be a very good friend... and that was more important than looks. Then, just to be safe, I threatened her with severe punishment if I ever found that she had been mean to him in any way...

My lecture hasn't stopped her interest in visual beauty, however... Joe told her one day that he had made a new friend: a girl named Katie. Finley's first question was "Was she beautiful?" And yesterday, she told me about her new friend at school. "She's very pretty," she said, then went on to describe the clothes the girl wore that day.

So on top of all the other prayers for my children is that they would be able to enjoy the obviously beautiful things in the world, but also have eyes to see the hidden beauty of things as well...