What I Actually Think About My Body After Seven Kids
One of the hardest journeys of motherhood for me has been figuring out how to take care of, and make peace with, my body.
The Noise Is Constant
It comes at us from every direction. Get rid of the cortisol belly fat. Go get another manicure or pedicure, get your hair done, you need to look like this. Your puppy face is just your hormones being out of whack. I mean, it's literally coming at us from every angle, all the time.
I'm a mom of seven kids. Yes, my body looks a lot different than it used to. I've packed on some of the pounds. My hips have changed. My body just carries itself differently now than it did before I had children.
What I Keep Coming Back To
Here's what I know is actually true, even on the days the noise is loud. I am not defined by what I do or what I look like. As a woman, I bear the image of God. And if I belong to Christ, Scripture says something even more astonishing: I've been bought at a price, redeemed, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). I'm known and loved by a God whose grace I could never earn, and my body was never what that grace was measuring in the first place.
That identity doesn't grow when I have a good workout or shrink when I don't like a photo of myself. It doesn't fluctuate based on the number on a tag or a scale. It was true before I had seven kids and it's true now.
Evidence, Not a Flaw to Fix
My body carrying seven children into the world is not something to apologize for or quietly try to reverse. It's evidence of what it's actually been used for. That reframe didn't happen overnight, and it's not a permanent finish line I crossed once. It's something I have to return to, especially on the days the culture gets loud again.
I wrote more about where this identity actually comes from in What I Want My Daughter to Know Before Anything Else. The same truth that has to anchor her has to anchor me first.
If You're in This Same Season
You are not defined by what you do. That identity doesn't grow when you execute a beautiful morning and it doesn't shrink when you lose your patience at three in the afternoon. You're building whatever you're building, in your home or in how you see your own body, not to become someone, but because of who you already are in Christ.
If you want to work through what that actually looks like, foundation first, before anything else, that's exactly where The Faithful Home begins.
Build the rhythms faithfully. Trust God with the growth.