At Home in Your Body
I have stretch marks.
The other day, my 7-year-old daughter caught a glimpse of them and said, “Oh Mom, I’m sorry.”
I asked her why.
“Those marks…” she replied.
I smiled and told her, “I love those marks. I’m proud of them.”
I told her that those marks are beautiful to me because they tell a story of pregnancies, weight gained and lost, and seasons that have shaped me.
I did not always feel this way.
I remember feeling ashamed of my stretch marks and loose skin. I remember comparing myself to images online and wondering how I measured up. I felt flawed. At one point, I even felt hatred toward those marks. When they first appeared, they looked red and angry to me. I did not wear them lovingly or tenderly. I wore them with embarrassment.
That began to change during one of my later pregnancies.
My oldest daughter, who is now a NICU nurse, would often place her hands on my growing belly and feel her baby sister move. One day, as she traced her fingers across my stretch marks, she exclaimed, “Oh Mom, they’re so beautiful!”
I remember feeling almost shocked by her response.
She wasn’t seeing flaws. She was seeing evidence of life. She knew those marks represented an open womb that was holding and nourishing her baby sister. The same womb that had once held and nurtured her.
In that moment, I felt a deep responsibility.
I wanted my daughters to learn to love their bodies in all their seasons. I wanted them to see their marks of humanity not as something to hide, but as something that tells a story. Whether male or female, young or old, we all bear marks of our humanity.
Psalm 139:14 says, “I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
God created our bodies fearfully and wonderfully. Stretch marks don’t change this truth.
Growth leaves marks.
The pulling, stretching, tearing, healing, and growing seasons of our lives mark us. These marks are part of our humanness, and they can bring glory to God.
That recent conversation with my youngest daughter reminded me how far God has brought me.
Years ago, I wrote a journal entry that achingly asked:
“Will I ever feel at home in my own body?”
When I look back on that prayer, it feels like a distant place. Not because my body is perfect, but because of God’s goodness and faithfulness.
This summer, I’d like to share some of that journey.
Over the coming months, we’ll explore what it means to live at home in your body. We can function, express, achieve, and even serve others through our bodies without truly feeling at peace within them.
Recently, a poem and article I wrote called All Together Lovely was published in the new Every Little Seed Magazine “Restoration” issue. In that piece, I share about a season of my life when I gained a significant amount of weight in a short period of time and the journey that led me to feeling more at home in my body. As I welcomed hidden parts of my story to God and to His table of feasting, I received healing in this area of my life.
Body awareness, discipline, and care are an integral part of my life as a dance teacher and director of a Christ-centered dance studio. Our bodies are the instruments through which we share our art with the world. I am also a mother to five daughters, a daughter-in-law, two sons and a son-in-law, and I long for each of them to know who they are, whose they are, and to feel at home in the bodies God has given them.
Culture is loud about the body. SO LOUD. Comparison is constant. Social media, advertising, and even quiet internal narratives often tell us what our bodies should look like, what they should be, and what they mean about us.
Over time, those messages can shape the way we see ourselves in ways we don’t even realize, in ways that are not rooted in God’s truth.
As Christians, we can sometimes confuse the Biblical call to put to death the sinful nature with a suspicion toward our physical bodies themselves. But Scripture does not teach that our bodies are the problem. We are embodied people, created by God to live, worship, serve, and relate to Him and to one another through physical life.
At the center of our faith is a God who took on flesh.
Jesus came in a real human body. He lived among us in flesh and blood. He was raised bodily from the dead. And the Holy Spirit of God now dwells within us!
Paul writes:
“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11)
And again:
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19)
Our bodies are not obstacles to holiness. They are the places where holiness is lived. They are where we worship, serve, create, and love.
And, they are temporary. Scripture calls them tents (2 Corinthians 5:1). We experience sickness, aging, weakness, suffering, and loss in them. They carry the reality of a fallen world. But they are also sacred spaces where the image of God is meant to be revealed.
The smiles we share, the hugs we give, and the hands that serve all can become expressions of Jesus to others.
That is powerful. That matters!
My stretch marks are soft and silvery now. They no longer look angry. It has been nearly thirteen years since I gave birth. Time has changed them.
I also carry invisible stretch marks from the journey of foster care and adoption. Welcoming my youngest daughter into our family stretched me in ways pregnancy never could. The stretching wasn’t visible on my skin, but it marked my heart. Loving her required surrender, trust, perseverance, and change. Those marks are just as real as the ones on my body.
She is the daughter who noticed my stretch marks the other day.
My story of becoming at home in my body is deeply connected to my story with her.
Now I have a daughter-in-law preparing to give birth to her first child – a son. Her marks mean I’m a Grandma! Her body now bears the marks of a miraculous little one; a long-awaited and prayed-for child. Her marks declare the goodness and faithfulness of God.
How could that not be beautiful! She is beautiful. All of my daughters are beautiful. YOU are beautiful!
Growth leaves marks. Love leaves marks. Grief leaves marks. Motherhood leaves marks. Following Jesus leaves marks.
Every mark tells a story.
What marks do you bear?
What parts of your story do they represent?
And do you feel at home in the body God has given you?
I’d love to hear from you, and I look forward to exploring embodied living more with you this summer!
