I’ve received emails with the following article a few times since yesterday afternoon… and each time I receive it I’m once again encouraged and reminded of the great blessing of motherhood and childbearing specifically. I’m encouraged bcz the ones who have sent it are mothers who not only love their children but also love being mothers — mothers who have borne many children and whose bodies have been made comfortable… for babies… and adored by husbands who appreciate and marvel at the handiwork and blessing of the Lord.
Article by Jeff (The Public Undressing of America) Pollard
The True Meaning of Beauty:
A Pastoral Letter to Fruitful VinesDear Fruitful Vines,
One never knows in God’s mercy and kindness what a simple appeal to a Biblical passage can produce. As I was pondering my last encouragement to you all, I pondered Psalm 128. Verse 3 says, “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house.” I thought, “You know, instead of saying, ‘Dear pregnant moms,’ maybe, ‘Fruitful Vines,’ instead.” Now “pregnant moms” is a lovely term to me. Nevertheless, from the encouraging replies I received regarding the term Fruitful Vines, it will now be the address of choice!
This also pointed out to me again the importance of words and, especially in our society, of image. You dear sisters have to stand in the checkout lines of Wal-Mart and other stores all the time. Glaring at you are rows of magazines that virtually shout at you, “The Hollywood Harlots are the standard of beauty. You have to look like this, and display that, or you are not beautiful.”
Don’t listen to this. Reject it. Replace this lie with God’s truth.
Some of you mentioned waddling. Some of you mentioned that vines are thin. I was amused. Yet, I was also pierced to my very soul. Our society has made body-sculpting surgeons rich and constantly shoves its artificial, nip-and-tuck, silicone and Botox standard of beauty in your face. Let me tell you something: waddling, as your body bears the children God gave you, is holy. The changes, the aches, the pains, the swelling, the stretch marks, and all the rest-these are all beautiful in the eyes of the Lord and to any man who has his biblical wits about him. It is stunning beauty to see women submitting to the often painful changes that bearing the Lord’s children brings. Being fruitful and multiplying brings glory to the Lord Jesus Christ and is the holy act of bringing God’s elect into this world. Through virgin’s womb, our beloved Savior entered this world. Mary did the most holy waddling that has ever graced the planet. It was not the sultry, sensual sashay of seduction. It was the humble, load-bearing, groaning, aching waddle of the salvation of all God’s elect for all eternity.
Waddle on,groan on, swell up to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ: you are displaying a true and holy beauty to your God and to anyone who has eyes to see.
My beloved wife used to say in her last trimester, “I feel like a beached whale.” I wish I had told her a million times and more, “But you are beautiful to me and to the Lord.” She was then and she is now the delight of my eyes. Dear Vines, there is a beauty in your fulfilling the eternal purpose of God to which all the airbrushed, surgically enhanced bodies on this planet will never compare. Your self-effacing sacrifice displays the glory of your Lord.
Waddle, swell, and groan to glory of your Savior. He knows true beauty when he sees it…”
The above article by Jeff Pollard posted at Vision Forum | Doug Phillips Blog Permalink
with love and thanks to the LORD for the inestimable gift of motherhood and opportunity for life…
Thank you for posting this. Now expecting my 10th child, I can see so many things about me that I sometimes wish were a little different. *smile* My husband always tells me that I’m beautiful..and that, especially during these times I really do glow. He has always referred to me as his “fruitful vine” …thus our blog name “Lines From The Vine”. What a sweet article this was and so encouraging to me during this season. Thank you! : )
One night when my husband and I were discussing weight gain during pregnancy, he said that he considered the extra pounds some of us hold on to after having a baby as “a badge of honor”. Perhaps the hollywood image of a super-thin, childless working woman is not as appealing to men as the world would like us to think it is.
Teary! How refreshing…I am feeling rather “beautiful” today. ;}