Tomorrow I get to talk about Body Image to a crowd…Yes! I am serious.

Tomorrow I have the honor of speaking to approximately 70-100 women at a meeting called MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers).

The theme for the semester is: Life—It’s a beautiful mess. And my particular topic: Body Image.

I am pretty sure that most of you have read my previous blog postings and are wondering…

HOW IN THE HECK ARE YOU GOING TO TALK ABOUT BODY IMAGE?!

(If you haven’t, here is a simple link to one that should make you giggle: http://wp.me/p3Bh9m-aP).

Well, it is a FAIR question.

How am I …the most nonchalant and make-up free woman in the world… going to talk about body image?!

And this is my answer.

I was a very skinny kid and even as a young adult (the Johnston metabolism alone gets the award for that). And then I had my first child. And with this glorious gift of a baby, I was also given other gifts.

Stretch marks.

Cottage cheese buttocks and thighs, aka my friend Cellulite.

Oh. I can’t forget the double chin.

Never before in my life had I had a double chin. I thought that was a gift reserved for old people…You know, not 30-year-old women.

In fact, I was so sure that my 50 pregnancy pounds were going to melt away once I delivered Adelyne that I brought normal clothes to the hospital until my sister sweetly informed me that I was still going to look 7 months pregnant after having said child.

Well—she was wrong. I still looked 9 months pregnant after said child. Because I am PRETTY sure I only lost 8 ½ pounds at that hospital. And, yep. That’s how much Adelyne weighed.

Anyhow, that is when REALITY quickly hit me.

I may have been a stick my entire life…But once I had that baby, I was no longer a stick but a fluffy piece of cotton. Okay, who am I kidding. I was a stuffed bear. All squishy and cuddly.

And, you know what, that was okay. Because I had a baby to cuddle in that fluff…And, eventually, some of that stuffing went away.

Did it go away because I refused to drink soda?

Heck no.

Did it go away because I refused to eat bread?

Heck no.

Did it go away because I turned down desserts?

Um…Do you even know me at all?

No!

Some of it eventually went away because I ate proportionately. I ate well. I went on walks with my daughter and husband. And because I did not stress.

I never even wore a girdle or those Spanx things, although perhaps I should have?

Sure, there were the times when my muffin top looked a little too realistic.

But that was okay. Because my muffin top was simply a reminder that I had baked a muffin.

And I much preferred my muffin to my Size 4 jeans (which have long, long, long ago been donated to our clothing closet in Poland).

You know…Tomorrow I will go and speak on Body Image. I am the least qualified to talk on the subject.

But I am greatly qualified to talk about Life…It is a beautiful mess.

And our body image. Truly, it should not be defined in Size 4 jeans. Or muffin tops. Or double chins. Not even in cellulite. We should rest in who we are in the Body of Christ.

And that, my friend, should make us BEAUTIFUL.

1 Samuel 16:7

…but the LORD looks at the heart.