This letter to my body was my birthday present to myself. Inspired by a post by Sarah Bessey, I am choosing to be grateful for this body that I have right now in this moment. It may feel imperfect to me and may even have some medical issues to work through, but it is a wonderful body.
Dear My Body of 37 Years,
You should know I desperately loathe this letter as much as I love it. This is hard work, but I want you to know a few things about how I feel. Things I usually forget to mention. I have to start with one thing.
I’m so sorry.
I’m sorry for the times I’ve hated you. The times I’ve been disgusted by you and called you names. The times I’ve pinched places and cried about you and squeezed into clothes that left you feeling pain. I’m so very sorry.
It’s my heart that’s broken, not you.
I’m sorry for the times I’ve hated you. The times I’ve been disgusted by you and called you names. The times I’ve pinched places and cried about you and squeezed into clothes that left you feeling pain. Share on XI’ve spent my life thinking that it was all your fault, but it’s those pieces of me that cannot stop comparing, cannot stop trying to measure up, cannot stop wishing for anything but what I am. I’m trying. I really am. But sometimes it’s hard. So, I think you should know how very grateful I am.
You’re good to me.
I mean it. Really, really good. You work around the clock for me, heart beating and lungs breathing, getting me all the places I need to go. But you’re so much more than a machine.
I love your eyes. They are ever-changing, like your moods, but they speak volumes and hold such light. Deep like the ocean and just as unpredictable, your eyes are my favorite thing about you.
Your pale skin and seasons of freckles used to bother me. I used to try to change that about you, but now I see it as a beautiful part of who you are. Not everyone is meant to have a tan, and those freckles remind me of my mom and my grandma, full of personality and stories and days spent laughing in the sunshine.
I love the story you tell.
There are so many parts that I used to hate, but I’m learning to love. The widows peak that reminds me of a past I often try to forget and that space in my teeth that I tried for so long to hide beneath tight-lipped smiles. I cannot erase who I came from and I don’t want to spend my life with lips pressed together in anger. So, I throw my head back and laugh full and deep, smiling wide because your differences are not imperfections, but the very things that make you mine.
You’re soft and curved, full of a life lived well. And that is all I could ever want from you. To live life well.
Remember to enjoy the chocolate, wear the bathing suit. Happiness is about more than a number on a scale. Share on XYou’ve carried me well. And I am so very grateful for all you are. You make it possible for me to embrace those I love and enjoy the ocean breeze. My lips, covering those teeth I mentioned, they let me kiss the man I first kissed in an old car in my parents driveway. You let me hold my babies before and after they saw the sun, and your chest has always given them a place to rest their head and hear a mama’s heartbeat. You have carried me well.
If you hear negative words slip from my lips or thoughts entertained in my mind, remember, I do not mean them. Not really. It just means I forgot all that you are.
We will keep on experiencing this beautiful world together, living full and imperfect. Loving deep until we feel it in our whole self. Your thighs may always rub and your belly may always jiggle when you laugh but that means you have plenty and enjoy life.
Your scars are less maps of when you’ve been broken and more a testament to your power to heal, so I will not hide them from the world that needs to believe in healing.
Hair may begin to gray and wrinkles may carve paths on my face, but they will be paths full of memories of the beauty and tragedy and sorrow and hope of life lived. You may be just a vessel, but you’re my vessel and the first part of taking care of you is loving you.
I am so very grateful for you and love you fully, just as you are.
xo
Me
A Letter to You
My dear friend,
I know how hard it can be to find ways to love yourself, especially your body. We walk through the hard every single day. The one thing that has helped more than anything else is learning to believe what God says about me.
Do you want to believe the good things God says about you? I know I do. And I believe we can do it together. I wrote this to help us. One reader shares that this book “helped me put aside negative attitudes and actions so I can live more fully in God’s calling for me.”
Let’s do this together. Get your copy and start believing today!
With Much Love,
Rebecca
OH I just love this! I too have struggled to Love (like?) my body most of my life and am slowly beginning to embrace it; flaws and all.
It is so freeing (but still hard to do!) So grateful for God’s grace in the process!
This is so great. laurensparks.net
Thanks Lauren!
This is so beautiful Rebecca. Such a powerful reminder that our bodies are more than just a reminder or a shell. I love it so much!
Thanks Eva! So grateful we can encourage one another!
Thank you, Rebecca. I also have a hard time staying connected to the truth that my body is a gift from God. I want to honor him in the way I care for me.
Yes! I’m not always great at that. But I’m working on it!
This is a great post Rebecca! MAN, I love chocolate so very much!!! Thanks for this reminder and thanks for linking up at InstaEncouragements! God made each of us different, just the way He purposed, and we have to embrace that and those difference. Comparison is the thief of joy!
Amen girl! Chocolate and Jesus are always the right answer 😉
A wonderful way to teach us biblical acceptance of our bodies and appreciation for this marvelous gift! It is difficult to have a balanced and compassionate outlook regarding our bodies but this letter is showing us exactly this!
Thank you. It is challenging, but it is so beautiful when we can get to this place (even if we have to get there on shaky knees!)
Definitely pinning and sharing! This is something that all women need to hear. What you have written is exactly how most of us feel. Thank you so much for sharing this.
Thanks Angela, that means so much to me!
This is a great post and a good perspective shift! It is easy to focus on our imperfections instead of focussing on how amazing our bodies are and embracing who God created us to be.
Isn’t that what it’s all about — who God is and what God does?! He’s so good.
I loved your letter to yourself. Thanks for sharing
Thanks Christine! So glad you’re here.
Thank you for your courage in writing this letter. What a gift you have given yourself. As a woman, I am most critical of myself. Thank you for showing me how to love myself better.
It is hard sometimes, isn’t it? So grateful when we can encourage one another to know who God made us to be!
I hear freedom in your words, so I hope it was as freeing as it sounds to us for your soul. Thanks for sharing! xo
Awww, that’s so sweet! Thank you!
Thank you. Rebecca, for sharing this post with us – I’m sure many people will relate to this!
I LOVE your blog/writing and am so glad I had a moment to dig deep into it today.
CONGRATS – you are our Friend Of The Week at Create With Joy! 🙂
Thank you so much! What an honor!
This spoke straight to my heart!! Thanks for your vulnerability. I felt EVERY WORD. I think it would be appropriate for all of us who have struggled with loving our bodies to write letters to our bodies.
I’m so glad you could relate, Jennifer! Big hugs!
I found your link on the #Cheerleadersoffaith link party. Beautifully written and a truth we all need to embrace. I love the way you described the story our bodies tell. Thank you!
So glad you’re here!
Beautiful! Oh, how this resonates. If you don’t mind, I’ll share it with my FB followers on Friday as part of my weekly roundup.
Blessings,
Tammy
Thanks for sharing!
This is just what I needed – thank you!
I need this. Always. I haven’t always been appreciative of my body either, yet it has served me so well for so many years! Not always without aches and pains. But it has been faithful to do the things I’ve needed it to do.
Right there with you, friend!
Ooooh. Yes. I feel this, so much. I have also spent many (many) years hating my body, trying to change and ignore it, but I am also making not just peace but friends with it. Fearfully and wonderfully made. 💗
Yes! I love that shift from making peace with your body to making friends with it!
Beautiful! I really wish society taught us to love our bodies as they are, instead of the comparison, envy, and shame that is so much the norm. <3
Yes! That would be wonderful. We can help foster that change!
This is beautiful, Rebecca – and so encouraging. Thank you for sharing this ❤️
Thank you!