A Mother's Body

As I mentioned in a previous post, my body was quite ravaged by my 40-hour labor and delivery; almost seven weeks out I am only now starting to feel like "myself" again and able to get out and get things done. While even in the midst of my most intense recovery period, I said I would do 40 hours of labor all over again, it became increasingly apparent in the following weeks that my body would never be the same again, and it was a little depressing, and a little scary...especially went I thought of doing it all over again and knowing I would just become even more battered.

Well, as also mentioned in a previous post, the Lord's lessons are so timely. A friend had forwarded an excerpt of a book, Loving the Little Years, by Rachel Jankovic, to my husband and, when I read it, I had an overwhelming peace that this ravaged body is indeed perfectly the way it should be.

Read this excerpt and be encouraged:

"Motherhood is a demanding job. It is so demanding and intrusive, in fact, that it takes over your body. It uses your body, oftentimes rather roughly. This can start to bother us. You may have some weight to lose, and you may start to resent that. You might have permanently damaged something during a pregnancy. You may have big scars, stretch marks, and loose skin that bothers you. You might not have time to exercise the way you used to. All of these things can be seen as an offense against us-against our bodies.


There are really two separate points I would like to make here. First of all, our bodies are tools, not treasures. You should not spend your days trying to preserve your body in its eighteen-year-old form. Let it be used. By the time you die, you want to have a very dinged and dinted body. Motherhood uses your body in the way that God designed it to be used. Those are the right kind of damages.


There are of course ways to hurt your body that are outside of God's design for it and disobedient. But motherhood is what your stomach was made for-and any wear and tear that it shows is simply the sign of a well-used tool. We are not to treat our bodies like museum pieces. They were not given to us to preserve, they were given to us to use. So use it cheerfully, and maintain it cheerfully. When you are working hard to loose the baby weight (as you might need to), think of it as tool maintenance. You want to fix your body up in order to be able to use it some more. It might be used for more children, or it might be used to take care of the children you have. We should not be trying to fix it up or put it back on the shelf out of harm's way or to try to make ourselves look like nothing ever happened. Your body is a tool. Use it.


Also, your body is a tool-maintain it. Having sacrificed your body for your children is no excuse for schlepping around in sweatpants for the rest of their childhood. When you were eighteen, you might have been skinny without even trying. In your thirties, after having a pile of kids, the chances are good that you will need to try. And in case you care, this word is not coming from one of those miracle mothers who comes out of the hospital more svelte that she went in! My children, bless them, have left their mark!


Scars and stretch marks and muffin tops are all part of your kingdom work. One of the greatest testimonies Christian women can have in our world today is the testimony of joyfully giving your body to another. While so many women choose to not have children or abort the children that they were given, the testimony of women who know the cost and joyfully pay it is profound......


So realize that your body is a testimony to the world of God's design. Carry the extra weight joyfully until you can loose it joyfully. Carry those scars joyfully as you carry the fruit of them. Do not resent the damages that your children left on your body. Just like a guitar mellows and sounds better with age and scratches, so your body can more fully praise God having been used for His purposes. So don't resent it, enjoy it."


After reading that, my perspective was refreshed and I realized, without these scars, I wouldn't have my son. They are a testimony of God's faithfulness in my life and His answer to my most fervent prayer, for a child. That makes them so sweet. All these permanent aches, scars, and ill-functioning parts are part of an answer to prayer. For that, I will wear them proudly...and be thankful that I was given the privilege to bear the marks of motherhood.