The Beauty of a Mother’s Body

“Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.”

Proverbs 31:30

Mothers of little ones will find a wealth of encouragement in Rachel Jankovic’s book Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches. As a mother of five young children, Rachel writes about the joys, challenges, and unexpected lessons of motherhood with refreshing honesty and humor.

The following excerpt from Rachel’s book contains truths that are especially important for discouraged mommies to hear. Make sure you read it all the way to the end… 

This is something that I am sure every mother has heard about. You just need a little time to yourself. A long bath, some time to do your nails, getting your hair done, or going shopping for the day. We all need a little time off every once in a while…

I am officially on the record in favor of “me time.” It is necessary and fabulous. It isn’t good for the kids to have a frazzled and unshowered mother, so by all means get that kind of thing done. Find a way. Turn on a cartoon if you must—it isn’t the end of the world.

But there is a sense in which we must really guard ourselves. 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 might 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…

[O]ur 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…

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 make sure that you aren’t buying into the world’s propaganda. While there are a great many rewards, the sacrifice is very real. The reason so many women don’t want to do it is because it is very hard and has very real costs. But the answer to these obstacles is not to run away in fear as the world does, but to meet it with joy and in faith…

So realize that your body is a testimony to the world of God’s design. Carry the extra weight joyfully until you can lose it joyfully. Carry the 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.

[Loving the Little Years, pp. 57-60]

Would you like a copy of Rachel Jankovic’s book? Add your comment below before midnight (EST) tonight, and I’ll randomly choose one winner to receive a free copy of Loving the Little Years. 

Photo: Sebastian Danon