Thank You Jesus for My Postpartum Body

Dear Jesus, thank you for my postpartum body.

Thank you for this body that has done so much. Thank you for how hard it works every single day. It grew and carried and birthed a beautiful baby. What an incredible miracle you worked through me.

Thank you for my belly that carried my baby through pregnancy. Thank you for my arms that carried him after that. Thank you for my face that makes him smile and smiles back. Thank you for my voice that sings him to sleep. Thank you for my ears that hear his cries. Thank you for my breasts that produce milk to sustain him.

Thank you Jesus for getting me through labor. Thank you for the strength to feed and clothe and change him. Thank you for the motivation to get out of bed every morning to do it all again.

I know I don’t always take very good care of my body. It has given me so much. It is an amazing masterpiece that you’ve created, and I don’t always remember that or treat it as such.

I don’t always listen to my body’s signals when I’ve done too much. I don’t always work on relaxing when my shoulders get tense. I don’t always get a glass of water when I feel queasy. I don’t always stop to snack when I feel hungry. I don’t rest when you show me how much I need it.

I know my body needs better care from me. More vegetables maybe? Definitely more water. More rest time where I can actually recharge so I don’t have as many knots or headaches or stress symptoms. More face washing and flossing. Maybe more hot baths too.

verses about postpartum body thank you jesus

Lord, as I think through how grateful I am for this body, I’m reminded of how I’ve been struggling with it too lately.

Clothes are fitting differently or not at all. But I know that’s okay. This is a season where I look and feel a little different. I don’t have to fit into my old clothes. I don’t have to look like I did before having a baby. Remind me that it’s okay for me to look like what I look like now and wear and buy what fits me now so that I feel good now.

There are parts of my postpartum body that I wish weren’t there, but it’s all part of the amazing work it did. My belly is a little softer and looser, but that’s because it needed to be soft and loose to make my baby comfy. There are stretch marks rippling across parts that used to be smaller than they are now. But I’ve heard some call them “love lines” and I think I can accept that they’re markers of a life well lived.

My body is so capable. God, help me to remember that I don’t need to compare myself to any one else or any other versions of me. The numbers I love to hate – pounds, sizes, inches – don’t measure how much I’ve grown as a human being. How much I’ve lived and laughed and loved. They’re just little digits, little tidbits of information that have no bearing on how good of a person I am.

Finally, Jesus, thank you so much for the many good things YOU have to say about my body. You made my body good (Eph 2:10). You made my body wonderful and unique (Ps 139:14). You gave me my body as a gift (1 Cor 6:19-20), to hold all my hopes and dreams, to carry my baby, to walk around, and to live.

Lord, you have made my life beautiful. You have made my postpartum body beautiful. You have made me exactly as you planned.

Thank you Jesus for my postpartum body.

Amen.