(Link to
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHXivM4TXio)
You’re
beautiful
With
the shiniest diamonds in your ears
You
can’t hear your mother – she’s crying in the other room
She
knows it won’t be okay
Farther
from her daughter with the coming of each day
So
you pick up your books, that you never read
Run
off to school like a good drama queen
Do
you care where you’re going, or know where you’ve been?
Barely
a woman, you’re 18 years in
Our
faith is placed in second chances
As
the angel and her demon dance it’s
Like you’re 18 years in with no way
out
And you’re the star of the story you
don’t care about
Just
a little girl in a bigger world turned upside-down
Well,
don’t’ you throw it all away when no one’s here to pull you out
Who’s
gonna pull you out?
You’re
beautiful
with
your brand new clothes
Like
armor from your head, from your head to your toes
You
keep it all inside so that nobody knows
Your
heart’s on fire, people blind to the glow.
And
all these boys are thirsty for your outsides
You
never care to ever let the right ones in
They’re
taking from you something that is sacred
I‘ve
watched a car crash but I just can’t take this
Our
faith is placed in second chances
As
the angel and her demons dance
And when you’re safe and sound inside
your bed
I know you dream of things bigger
than the things that you let live
When
you’re safe and sound inside your bed
I
know you dream of things I, I know you dream 18 years in
Only
18 years in with no way out
And
you’re the star of the story you don’t care about
Just
a little girl in a bigger world turned upside-down
Well, don’t’ you
throw it all away when no one’s here to pull you out
This is such a powerful message. It has not been that song since I was 18 and
as I reflect on how I have grown in these past couple years, I want to reach
out to those I see believing the lies I did at that age. My heart in writing this is to help encourage
the people that I love to be free from the meaningless lies Satan is telling
them- believing that they are not beautiful… not good enough… that they need to
do what everybody around them is doing… that they aren’t special.
While all the blame cannot be placed on
“culture”, there are soooo many things that are backwards and messed up that
our society tells us are “important” and that you “need to have/do”. These lies are planted in our minds from a
very young age- in TV shows, commercials, billboards, online… and as we enter
into our teen years we start to live them out whether through relationships, with
our money, with our time without even realizing why we are doing it. I know it because this is what I did and am
still struggling to distinguish between- what is right in God’s eyes versus what
I have been told/influenced to do.
I love how this song shows that so many of us
are living to keep up an image- one that is typically very different from the
way we are feeling on the inside. The
way we dress (diamonds in your ears), the new clothes that are used like
“armor” to protect us from standing out so that people won’t see us, and on the
inside our hearts are on fire- wanting something more but people are blind to
that glow because we cover it up to look the same as everyone else. It is as if our biggest fear is standing out-
especially for what we believe, and what we really want.
“Do you care where you’re going, or know where
you’ve been?”
I
love this question because it shows how we blindly go through the motions-
through the routines just to keep up. “Do
you know where you’ve been?” When we go
places intentionally we know where we have been- and why… but when we are just
going through motions and staying with the crowd it is so easy to get lost and
not even know where we have been anymore.
We lose our self- and don’t even care where it is we are headed so long
as we are with everyone else and not standing out- even if we think of feel
differently. We get so caught up in
staying with the appearance that we start to feel like “there is no way out”,
and yet inside we long for something more.
You have become “the star of a story you don’t care about”- it isn’t
even about the things you want anymore- how sad is it to not even care about
your own story, because you have given it to the crowd to write?
These
things were not meant to fill us or sustain us- only God can fill that void and
that longing. He is the only one who can
pull us out of it all. Clothing, relationships,
social status- none of those things can sustainably fulfill us. The joy they bring us is momentary and
fleeting- hence the need to keep going back for more and seek after style that
is forever changing.
“And when you’re safe and sound inside your
bed
I know you dream of things bigger
than the things that you let live.”
And
the sad part is that we all long for more- we all dream of these bigger things
that we stifle to fit in… so know that you aren’t weird or different. Take back your story and start to let your
dreams shine. Encourage one another
instead of tearing one another down- God wants so much more for you, fill
yourself with Him.
