Motherhood Changed Your Body, and You Are Beautiful

Long before you held your baby for the first time, your body went through an intricate transformation. For nine months you watched your belly grow and change. Your body was a life-giving home to the incredible miracle nestled inside of you.

Motherhood changed your body, and you are beautiful.

When you gazed in the mirror each morning, you noticed a difference in your appearance — a rounder face, changes in your skin and marks that were never there before. Your clothes fit a little snugger each day until eventually it felt like nothing fit at all. And each time you weighed in at your check-ups, the number on the scale went up.

Motherhood changed your body, and you are beautiful.

You endured the nausea and sleeplessness nights of tossing and turning—nights when not a single sleep position would do. Extra trips to the bathroom and midnight cravings, were normal nighttime routines. You were tired and out of breath more than ever before.

Motherhood changed your body, and you are beautiful.

You were thrilled the first time you felt your baby move. Nothing compared to that feeling. People would often ask to place their hand on your belly so they could feel too. As time went on, those gentle movements sometimes felt more like painful nudges — a sign to you that your baby was running out of space.

Motherhood changed your body, and you are beautiful.

By the end of your pregnancy you did not understand how your belly could stretch even just one more centimeter. And even though you were more uncomfortable than ever, you were amazed at the detailed journey your body endured to create a little life.

Motherhood changed your body, and you are beautiful.

And then the awaited moment came — the reason for all the changes that had transpired in your body over those past nine months.

The moment when you eagerly welcomed your very own child into this world.

The word pain took on a whole new meaning. As the contractions got closer and closer, you struggled to breathe normally. You cried. You screamed. You fought with every ounce of strength inside of you to push through the intense pain.

And then…

You sighed a looooooong breath of relief.

For the first time ever, you heard the sweetest cry from the mouth of your tiny infant.

As you held your child against your chest you felt joy and contentment. All the weight you had gained, all the sick-to-your-stomach moments, all the restless nights — were worth it in that moment. They were more than worth it.

Because in your very own arms, peacefully rested the beautiful life, that grew inside of the beautiful you.

There were moments during your child bearing journey when you did not feel beautiful. There were moments post-pregnancy when you did not feel beautiful either. There are moments now when you still struggle to feel beautiful.

Extra baby weight, clothes not fitting like they used to and all the other changes to your body — sometimes make you feel anything but beautiful.

But true beauty is not defined in the way the world often portrays it.

While you look in the mirror in disappointment because of the flaws you see, your Heavenly Father looks down on you and sees you as flawlessly beautiful.

He doesn’t pay attention to the number on the scale. He doesn’t care about the size of your jeans. All He sees when He looks at you is His beautiful creation. And through you, He brought a beautiful life into this world.

What you did to bring that life into this world, was beautiful. What you are doing now to raise that child in this world, is beautiful.

Don’t listen to the lies that try to tell you something different. Don’t play the game of comparison that shreds your self-worth.  Don’t let the unrealistic images you see in magazines and on T.V. steal away the joy that is meant to be yours.

You are beautiful. Just. As. You. Are.

Motherhood changed your body, and you are beautiful. 

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

~Psalm 139:14 (ESV)