Beauty. To me, when you’re pregnant this definition changes. When you type that into google, this comes up, “a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.”. When I look at a pregnant woman, I see a different kind of beauty. I see, yes, a bigger belly, but when I see that belly, I see that she is building a human inside her. I see the amount of food she needs to eat for that baby as the building blocks needed for a healthy child. When your body’s sole purpose is no longer your own is when you truly shine. I haven’t had a baby yet, but I’ve been around enough pregnant ladies through my mom’s passion, to truly have an appreciation and respect for every single pregnant mama. Whether she walks through our birth center doors or not. When I see a pregnant belly I see the love that got her there, the love that she has for that baby she hasn’t met yet. Everything she does now is for that baby, and she does it selflessly. To me all of these things equate to beauty that reaches farther than any color of hair or slim figure. So when you see those stretch marks and you can’t fit into your favorite pants that make your butt look good, see it as an accomplishment. See it as a gold medal that says, “My baby hasn’t been born yet but I’m already doing right by him and given him every building block he needs to be healthy.” Wear the stretch marks with pride, waddle like a penguin like a boss because your body is working overtime to do something that only females were given the ability to do! Create life. The Lord bestowed this blessing on us, He shared something with us that only He can do. He must have thought that we were up for it. When The Lord created Eve from Adam, it cost Adam his rib, but he saw that it was good. The same thing goes for us now as we carry our babies. It costs us some conveniences, it brings some back pain and stretch marks, our ankles might swell and yep, we get emotional and crave pickles.
This is another part of the journey we were talking in the last post. Some might see these things as horrible, annoying inconveniences. Or you can change the narrative, show everyone that you know what, everything isn’t about you all the time. This is just nine months of me laying my life down for my baby in the most selfless way possible. Isn’t that what love is? Laying down one’s life for another? The Lord laid down His life for us. God, sent His one and only Son down to us, I’m sure that was inconvenient. Jesus didn’t want to go through everything He did for us, He asked His father to spare Him, if there was another way. There wasn’t. He did it without complaint, He endured the pain and horrors of being stabbed and having a crown of thorns shoved onto His head, to show us His love for us. Our husbands are supposed to love us like Jesus loves His church, and He laid His life down for us. As mothers we get the honor of showing our love to our children by starting out their very existence by laying down our lives, our bodies, for them. It’s just the beginning really, it’s teaching us that in order to earn the hearts of our children, it takes time, selflessness, and laying our lives down.
Mama, you’re amazing. You’re beautiful. You are doing a wonderful job. Cry when you need to and eat all the pickles!
Author of post,
Ashlynn