Looking in the Mirror I Don’t Like What I See

Looking in the mirror I don’t like what I see right now. For some reason, unkempt hair, baggy shirts, and sweatpants have become the normal every day outfit for me. It doesn’t look much better when I go out in public either.

With pregnancy, my body is ever changing. I’m never the same two days in a row and I’m growing larger and larger with each passing week. I’m happy for this fact, and I’m grateful to have the privilege to share my body with my child to help him or her grow into a beautiful, sweet infant. However, it makes caring for my appearance challenging and sometimes depressing. Nothing fits and what does just isn’t comfortable when I’m on the floor playing blocks with my toddler. So I gave up trying. 

This is just the season I am in now. But before I know it, I’ll be wearing maternity clothes while no baby resides in my womb. I’ll be set to wondering if I’ll ever get to wear that frilly little sun dress again and trying to find jeans that fit hips that made way for a child to pass. Or I’m on the flip side of where I always end up, too skinny and lanky for anything to look halfway decent. Not to mention, when I finally find the “cutest outfit” the toddler boy will sling dirt and mud and food particles my way only to have a stain that cannot be removed on my sweet appealing new shirt.

Can you relate?

In the foreword for the book, Embracing Beauty by Trina Holden, Lisa-Jo Baker says:

Here’s to sweat pant days and dressed up high heels celebrations. Here’s to the glory of the ordinary and the wonder of a body that can birth babies. Here’s to that sweater your kids colored all over and those boots your daughter loves to dress up in. Here’s to women who see themselves always reflected first in the eyes of a loving Father and give themselves and their waistlines grace. No matter what the mirror tells you, I assure you that you are more beautiful today than you were three kids ago.

Isn’t that just so encouraging? As I stared in the mirror this morning, I reflected on all this body has walked through and I praised God. Of course, it didn’t eliminate my problem of having nothing to wear, but I didn’t turn to the sweatpants without a thought. I tried. I pulled out the best fitting jeans I own, put in some dangly earrings and plastered chap stick across my lips. It’s not fancy, but it’s a start, right?

I think too often moms just let themselves go in the infant and toddler years. But that’s just unfortunate when you think about the design of a woman! We were created to reflect the beauty and creativity of our Heavenly Father! Not hide our curves with baggy shirts that our husbands outgrew three years ago and warm our feet with wooly socks adorning hole-y heels. God didn’t create us for comfort and ease, but to glorify Him. <–Tweet This!

Now of course there is nothing inherently wrong with sweatpants (I’m not giving mine up!), but there is something wrong when we cease to care because it’s just too hard to stand in front of our closet and realize nothing fits right now. There is something wrong when we lose site of God’s glorious gift of femininity and cease reflecting His grace through the way we present ourselves to our families (and occasionally the public).

While reading Embracing Beauty this last week my heart grew convicted, and I found encouragement in these words from Trina:

Let’s embrace today’s beauty by clothing ourselves with the truth of His unconditional love for us. Accepting rather than resenting His design for your body during the season of motherhood will bless your husband, teach your kids the true definition of beauty, and be a testimony to all around you. 

From that place of acceptance, we can move to clothing our mamma figures gracefully and with taste so that all will agree that God made something beautiful when He created a mother’s body. That’s what the rest of this book is about!

If you need solid biblical encouragement in the area of beauty, then I suggest Embracing Beauty and Frumps to Pumps. Then when you’re ready to practically apply what you learn, you can use The No Brainer Wardrobe and Reuse Refresh Repurpose eBooks.

So tell me mama, what is your biggest struggle when it comes to clothing the body the Lord has given you?

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