"Beauty and Motherhood are One"

Here is my modern day hero. I heard about her blog a few months ago (nieniedialogues.blogspot.com). Here is a WORTHY rolemodel for women of all ages. Her body is severly burned and scarred yet she is among the MOST beautiful women on earth. My favorite quote from this video is when she says, "I am not my body." She knows who she is and lives with a purpose. Women: if you don't believe she is anything special just watch the way her husband looks at her. The light of Christ radiates from her and there is no doubt that she is so much more than the scarred, aching body she resides in.

This week I read about a popular fitness guru who said she never plans on having children because of what it would do to her body. I pity this woman. She will never know the joy of giving your heart, hands, body, sleep, strength, and last ounce of energy to another human being; a precious baby sent from a Heavenly Father on loan to your arms. Yes, there are many important things we can do with our lives and not everyone is meant to be parents BUT a woman's body and all it is capable of is something to be celebrated not feared! No matter how much we exercise, moisterize, and otherwise cling to the fountain of youth it simply does not exist. The body will age, it will crumble, it will die, and it will decay. A life focused only on outward beauty will have nothing to take with them when they die.

I am forever grateful to have a mother who ALWAYS taught me in word and by example that my worth had everything to do with my heart and nothing to do with my body. I can only hope to accomplish a fraction of what my mother has. She did not have a career though she now has time to think about that. She did not spare her body (as only a woman with 6 children-one coming after age 40 can understand). She gave and gave and gave her heart, mind, and soul to my father and the six children they created and raised together. Now I understand it wasn't an easy road but they fought through the storms together. No career or bikini worthy body can compare to that. She is a woman who in the eternities will be surrounded by hundreds and thousands of people who love and cherish her and can never repay her for all she did.

From my mother I know that NOTHING makes me more beautiful than my privelage to be a mother. As Stephanie Nielson said, "Beauty and Motherhood are One."