I have a six inch scar on my belly.
It’s not pretty. It hurt for a long time.
It testifies to the daughter I bore.
It’s one of the most beautiful parts of my body.
###
What unpretty marks do you celebrate for their beauty?
{Thanks to Natalie for the photos}
Want to keep up with this here blog – sign up to get my posts emailed to your doorstep right here
Or delivered to your reader of choice. Or just like us on Facebook.
I have that same mark. I got mine when doctors brought our first son (third child) into the world … not breathing. We now have a 4 year old who is strong and healty, and real go-getter of a little man. While it is not a big scar, one no one ever even sees, it is a forever reminder to me of what big things our God can do through littleness.
It isn’t one mark I bare but many. Each child left my body less “beautiful” than it was before. Yet each one of these is a testament to the existence of my children. I have seven, three in heaven and four here on earth with me. Some of the scars are deep inside and some evident on my body that is ever changing. Yet, in many ways I must still look at my body and know that it is beautiful and the scars, marks and discolorations are another confirmation of the blessings that God has given me. The six inch scar on my belly testifies to the precious life of one of the sons that I had to say goodbye to. Even through such tragedies I must still marvel at God in looking at my children, in seeing them grow each day for the last fifteen and half years. And as I had to let the children I lost go, releasing them to heaven’s arms, their lives no matter how short were beautiful and precious and the scars that mark their existence are a reminder of God’s infinite grace in lending them to me.
I have a three-inch scar, which is very faded right under the outside edge of my left bra cup. I celebrate it because when I had my baseline mammogram, they found an egg-sized lump, which neither I, nor my doctors had found. I was only 35. When they removed it shortly thereafter, they discovered it had three or four “leaders” wrapping around the muscles. The scar is about two inches longer than they anticipated, but it was more difficult to remove than they had thought it would be. Gratefully, the mass was benign. I celebrate that scar, because only God knows whether it would have turned cancerous if it remained in my body one second longer. :)
I have several…a few the same as your’s (from sweet blessing boy and sweet blessing girl), plus a few long scars right down my sternum. I celebrate them, because it is where extremely capable, skilled surgeons have repaired my aortic valve (when I was 6) and replaced it (when I was 25) so that I could be blessed with sweet blessings mentioned earlier. I am even getting a bit more comfortable with the newest one, to the point where I might not wear a tank top with EVERY single shirt that dips a little bit lower.
i have soft spots. mushy. mishy. they are the living proof that i am no longer a slave to ed (eating disorder). i love them.
Kendal, you made me smile today. :)
Twin Skin. The saggy, baggy proof that I carried two boys to 38 weeks (and before that, my 9.1 daughter to 41 weeks). God answered my prayers for healthy babies, and I’ve got the skin like the scruff of a cat’s neck to prove it. :S Maybe that makes my body an altar to God’s goodness…
She is beautiful. The scar is a sign of giving up and releasing I have one too. I am proud to say it saved my daughters life. She was breech and even though I was in deep intense hard labor she was not going to budge safely. We would have had a very difficult labor and perhaps a sad ending. Be proud it is beautiful.
After 4 pregnancies in less then 5 years, 2 c-section 1 vbac yes my husband could tell you my body is not what it use to be, he would say “it’s got better”
I have a lovely big scar down my stomach from just above the bottom of my ribs down to my belly button. I celebrate this because it was due to a horrific car accident when I was 11, a car accident which nearly killed my family. Whenever I think about that accident, I thank the Lord for his mercy and his magnificent plan for our lives. He saved us, that time and many times since then. That accident triggered rheumatoid arthritis in me which God has used over the years to teach me and the people I love many lessons. Praise God that he can take the most awful of situations and make them beautiful! Every time I see those scars I thank the Lord for his blessings on my life and the lives of all those I love! God is good, even in the worst of circumstances!
i’m not sure why it’s taken me 17 years and 5 babies to appreciate the beauty of a “mommy” body.
for years now i have fought the temptation to be ashamed of this saggy, stretched out tummy.
i often catch myself hanging my arms in a way so as to “hide” the small bulge that i still have due to abdominal seperation, which i still have even though my baby is almost 5.
i’m learning NOT to resent the looks i get when women look at my tummy, assuming that i’m pregnant because i’m thin everywhere else.
no, instead i am learning to love this body, the way my husband does. seeing it as a tool that God used to grow these 5 precious jewels (plus one in heaven).
seeing instead that i am healthy and am priviliged to be able to care for these kids.
i wouldn’t trade my kids for a “model” body anyday. and i’m learning that my kids and my husband don’t see the stretch marks and saggy skin….they see a beautiful woman who loves them with all her heart.
thank you for doing this series on beauty, lisa jo…..it’s been so beneficial for me.
I have a 3 inch scar on my arm, my back, and my foot, and oftentimes a new one joins them. They show where the surgeon removed the skin cancer that was growing there. Melanoma is such an unthreatening little word, it’s the “malignant” stuck in front of it that can bring the fear. But these scars remind me everyday of how I’m loved and cared for, and how Jesus heals and restores both bodily and spiritually. The growth of cancer can bring a growth of faith and my scars beautifully remind me of that. :-)
I struggle with remembering the beauty of my sagging belly. As a former gymnast and one who has always been physically fit, I get frustrated that the rest of my body looks ‘normal,’ but my pouch remains. God has to gently remind me that that pouch is beautiful b/c from it came three beautiful children. Thank you for helping me celebrate this part of my body. :)
I had hair that fell to my waist in a thick river of ruddy chestnut red-gold, fabulous in its ability to garner coments from all and sundry from before the time my memory carries me up until last year.
Now I have a hand-span scar on the back of my head, my hair grows jagged and shaggy around it, while flowing from the rest of my head to just below my shoulders.
The scar is beautiful; my hair is beautiful. The tumor removed from my brain is beautiful too.
Most of all, though, God is beautiful. God carries the greatest and only Beauty: and He carries us in His hands, always and everywhere.
Isn’t life amazing?
I have the same “beauty mark.” I wrote about it in last week’s “Five Minute Friday” prompt. I love my scar. It reminds me that even though I have trouble thinking I’m beautiful sometimes…that I can bear beauty, that something and someONE so beautiful came out of me!
i have thought of putting a tattoo of a rose (my girl’s middle name) near my c-section scar. it’s pretty awesome. :)
I needed to read this… reminder to me that even though my birth experience was the other side of horrible, and I hated having this massive ugly scar, its beautiful because my baby is beautiful… Thanks for always making me think deeper, Lisa-Jo!
PS. I think of you when I drink my Five Roses in the morning with my rusks :)
The belly that bulges out a little more so one week a month than the other weeks…it makes me look five months pregnant…and it reminds me that I still have a cycle to produce babies–God willing. I’ve produced one babe, and each month my body is reminded of it…and it’s such an ugly-beauty the way my body remembers and responds the way it does.
Here’s my blog about my unpretty beauty. http://charityr.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-unique-beauty.html
I love reading your blog. Thanks for letting us join you in your reflections on life.
I have the same scar and it’s one of my favorite features. My 3 boys look just like their dad. I joke that the scar is my only way to prove that they are mine! Seriously, though, I do love it for the beauty that was added to my life because of it.
I used to have a flat stomach with nice, soft, blemish-free skin. Now, 2 kids later, my stomach is saggy and cover with stretch-marks. It isn’t pretty, but if that’s what it takes to have my incredible kids, I would do it again!
I too have a c section scar.
On new years day 2008 i was out shopping w/ my hubby on a “walmart date” at 8ish. I was 8months pregnant. I started bleeding while we were there so we paid and left. on the way home the contractions started. It was a crazy, scary, God is so Good kind of night! My Pearly Girl was born at 12:08am on 1/2/08 (the same birthday as her namesake-my grandmother)by emergency c section. Although she was 6wks early, she had a set of lungs on her to outshine her 2 yr old sister. We were both able to go home after 2 days.
She is now my spit-fire. a little on the small side, but what she lacks in size she definitely makes up for in attitude and cute. :)
such a beautiful blessing
That’s funny… last week I wrote about my scars when your 5 Minute Friday prompt was beauty. :)
http://thatisalligot.blogspot.com/2011/08/beauty-in-thy-scars.html
here is mine, i thought i would put it on my blog. i may make a scrapbook page on this!
http://meettherobsons.blogspot.com/2011/08/unpretty-marks.html
She’s so beautiful! :)
I have that same scar, and another one from the appendectomy I had at 4 and a half months pregnant. It was a rough few months on my poor belly!
I have boobs that sag down to my belly button. I also grew up in Africa and thought it was normal till I saw my own!
9 months ago God gave me an 8 1/2 inch scar straight down my chest that I have affectionately named Ebeneezer. I had a very sick heart that was under so much pressure (because of old terrible blood clots in my lungs) that it wouldn’t last very many more years before failing completely. I was losing stamina and energy. I walked around with a backpack of oxygen. I had been told and I had read that my condition was incurable and fatal. I tried to have faith that God could heal me, but more often I was scared and without hope of ever fulfilling so many long held dreams. But God. In fact, in great mercy God rescued me. A rare surgery called a pulmonary thromboendarterectomy along with that beautiful 8 1/2 inch scar means that I am alive today and tomorrow and most likely many years to come. I have hope again and dreams are still possible…dreams like marriage, children, moving to Israel one day. My Ebeneezer, my memorial stone of what God has done for me, is a visible reminder to me and others that God restores and God redeems. What was not beautiful becomes beautiful, on my chest and in my life.
I’m sixteen and I have a scar right at the base of my neck. It symbolizes the scariest time in my life and also the one where I’ve seen God work the most. When I was twelve, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and went through three surgeries in one year. I missed a lot of life that year, but it was the year I realized people actually see me and care about me. A few weeks ago I went back in for my two year checkup (aka ultrasound on my neck—kinda nasty. Goo was EVERYWHERE) and praise God not a cancerous cell in sight. Some day, that scar will be almost barely visible and a silent reminder to me and my family that God is good. Even when we don’t understand