There once lived a girl named Beth. She was always told that she was pretty and beautiful by everyone, but she didn't really know what the difference was. Did her hair make her pretty? Did her clothes make her beautiful? One day, Beth decided to ask her teacher, Mrs. Holloway, what she thought the difference between pretty and beautiful was.
"That's a good question Beth," Mrs. Holloway replied. "Why not, for homework, you ask your mom what she thinks the difference is?"
Beth went home that day and found her mother in the garden, picking at all the ugly weeds.
"Momma, what's the difference between pretty and beautiful?" Beth asked her mother.
"What are you talking about, sweetie?" Her mother replied, slightly confused.
"How are people considered pretty and beautiful?"
Her mother, now understanding what her daughter was asking, replied, "People are considered beautiful not by how they look or what they wear but by how they act. People are beautiful when they are nice to others, when they put other people's happiness before their own. That is how beauty works. Not by appearance, but by action. Pretty is only skin deep, but beauty goes all the way."
"Momma, can someone be pretty and beautiful?"
"Of course! Everyone is pretty in their own way, but only a few people are truly beautiful."
"Momma?"
"Yes, baby?"
"How can you make someone beautiful?"
"You can't. They have to do that for themselves."
Beth goes back to school the next day, and tells her class what her mom taught her.
"My momma taught me that you don't have to try to be pretty, but you do if you want to be beautiful. Beauty is how you act, not how you look. Everyone in here is pretty. I want everyone in here to be beautiful too."
