Motherhood

Our bodies are tools, not treasures. We should not spend our days trying to preserve our bodies in its 18 year old form. Let it be used. By the time you die, you want to have a very dinged and dinted body. Motherhood uses your body in the way that God designed it to be used. Use your body as a tool, maintain it..take care of it. One of the greatest testimonies Christian women can have in our world today is the testimony of joyfully giving your body to another.

Your children changed you into a different person. If you suddenly panic because it all happened so fast and now you don't recognize yourself, what you need is not time alone. What you need is your people. Look out....look at the people who made you what you are, your husband and your children. Study them. They are you. If you want to know yourself, concentrate on them.
Loving the Little Years..motherhood in the trenches by Rachel Jankovic

A mother I greatly respect posted this today on facebook.  I want to read this book!  She's posted other quotes from it as well and it really got me thinking.

It's so true.  So much of our culture is pushing us to DEFY TIME!  ANTI-AGE!  Don't get wrinkles or brown spots from playing outside with your kids.  Don't dare look less than pulled together at all times.  I haven't read this book and I don't know the author but I love that she said to maintain our bodies.  Of course we should take care of them!  That honors and glorifies God and allows to us to best serve our familes.  But we are to USE them.  They are a tool.  God gave me my life to serve my family and friends and people around me that I don't even know.  I think about my Grandmother.  And my Mother.  And how hard they have worked their entire lives.  And I want to be like that.  And I want to teach Karlyn to be like that.  I want my body to be a tool for HIS kingdom and I want to serve my husband and children as fully as I can. 

I'm so thankful God has seen fit to bless me with our little family.  I'm overwhelmed by the task and humbled by the position.  I get to be a mom.  What a gift.