Dear Mama Who Just Had a Baby

Dear Mama Who Just Had a Baby,

You just grew a life inside of you for nine months. You put on the pounds for the health of your child’s development, battled morning sickness, fought through shooting pains in your back, huffed and puffed up stairs you once easily climbed, and endured the painful grand finale that is labor.

And now a few months have passed.

The mirror paints a different picture. Some of those extra pounds still hug your frame and your pre-pregnancy wardrobe fits snug if it fits at all.

The father of lies would like to convince you that you need “get your body back” as soon as possible. He’d like to pressure you into believing that your beauty is somewhere hidden underneath all the baby weight you need to lose in order to feel good about yourself again.

But there’s a sweeter, gentler voice singing over you.

It’s the voice of your Good Father—the One who fearfully and wonderfully made you, and purposely designed you with the ability to bear life and nourish a little life even after birth.

Remember the words of the psalmist, David?

“For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.”

~Psalm 139: 13-15 {NIV}

David wasn’t looking in the mirror praising himself for how wonderful of a creation he was. He was praising his Maker. His eyes were on his Marvelous Maker, the same One who made you.

Fix your eyes on your Marvelous Maker. Bask in the truth that you are a child of the King of kings, and dear Mama, that makes you royalty.

There are plenty of lies around every corner that will rob you of joy and contentment if you let them. They want to distract you into performance mode and convince you that your worth and beauty depend on your appearance.

And they’re just that—lies.

Your weight and shape of your body don’t define you. Whether or not you’ve lost the baby weight or not doesn’t matter. The finished work of the Cross and the One who bore the weight of sin on His is beaten body is where your worth is found. His nail pierced hands tell of the greatest love story ever told, and in Him is where your eternal identity lives.

You are made in the image of the most Beautiful One of all, and He stepped down from His Throne to show you just how valuable you are to Him.

Your body may be different than it once was, but it just did a beautiful thing of being home to a tiny miracle.

Hold that tiny miracle close to your mama body. Feed your little bundle, knowing you are doing important work. Nourish your body but don’t focus on the size of your waist. Focus on the size of God’s love for you and know that He’s smiling down on you as you journey through this season of motherhood, wanting to help you and refresh you with truth.

You are woven beautiful, dear Mama. And so is that precious child chosen for you.