If you just have time for one, I'd read the actual article.
Being pregnant, I really don't beat myself up about weight I've gained. I understand that weight gain is a very important and essential part of having a healthy baby. I actually find it almost a relief that I can relax just a little and stop comparing myself to others so much.
I think that the danger comes afterward when you all of a sudden feel like you should be able to look awesome if you eat right and exercise. I loved the article because it talked about celebrities getting their awesome pre-baby bodies back in a matter of months or weeks. If we're speaking truthfully, I've never had Faith Hill's bikini body (even before I was a mother). I guess my hope in referencing this blog is that all of the beautiful women I know will be able to love themselves even if they don't look like a supermodel. I hope that we will love our bodies and take care of them by exercising and eating right, even if we do it knowing that we may never look like the media thinks we should all look. I love the dove commercial (also on my friend's blog) and the efforts they are making to give young girls more self confidence and to help girls feel beautiful in spite of their differences.
In the end, if you're a mother and do look like
Faith Hill
or Kelly Ripa
,I'm happy for you, I'm proud of you, and I might even pray to look that great when I'm resurrected, (or after baby #2). But for those of us who don't, (or until we all do) I hope we don't feel like failures. I love the scripture in 1 Samuel 16:6 that says, "For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."
What better gift can we give to those who love us than to better our hearts and be as conscious of our inward appearances as we are of our outward appearances.
2 comments:
I totally agree about how many women find it necessary to be thin as a rail to feel attractive. I'm grateful for a husband who loves me and my body for the way it is- post pregnancy. That helps a lot. But I think women need to learn to love their body first, especially if you are going to teach your daughters to love herself the way she is.
Love this! So true that we have to work to keep our bodies healthy, but we don't have to be consumed by it. Satan is so mad that he doesn't have a body, that he tries to make us unhappy with our own. We will be judged as to our we treated our bodies, they are a gift from Heavenly Father.
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