I saw her staring at my belly as I got dressed. This child tends to comment on my body with all of the honesty a three year old can muster. If nothing else, she makes entertaining fodder for Twitter.

I now know when to stop letting my kids in the potty w/ me. When they start telling me how big my bottom is, they are banned. #motherhood

— Stacy (@sjedwards) July 22, 2013

Isn’t my belly pretty?

She looked at me as if it were a trick question. With her head tilted to the side, she stared a little harder.

No. 

This is when I knew that God had been doing some major work on me. In the past, I would have gotten angry. Or, maybe, I would have teared up. I have always been terribly insecure about my body. Recently, however, I have come to a convicting conclusion.  Insecure moms raise insecure daughters. It doesn’t matter how many times a day I tell them that they are beautiful if I then berate myself.

This belly is beautiful. Do you want to know why?

I don’t think she really cared to know. While she has the honesty of a three year old, she also has the attention span of one and had moved on to something else. But I wanted her to know why.

This belly has held five babies. It had to stretch and grow and make room. And it’s beautiful.

She just smiled and agreed that, yes, it was kind of pretty. She ran off to the next thing and I felt like a warrior who had just conquered a great enemy. 

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Your beauty  should not consist of outward things like elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold ornaments or fine clothes. Instead, it should consist of what is inside the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very valuable in God’s eyes. – 1 Peter 3:3-4

Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. – Proverbs 31:30

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. – Isaiah 52:7

For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. – 1 Samuel 16:7