“I looked at my stretch marks and I felt pride. I felt love. The love of my husband and the love of my children. Each one of them had been nurtured and lived behind those scars for nine months.
I felt pride.
I felt love.
I felt love for myself.”
Sharny & Julius
Sharny says that self-love she began to experience led to gratefulness for the body she has now. As a result, she began to treat herself better—body and mind.
“I WANTED to eat healthy. I WANTED to exercise, I WANTED to do the things I loved. Just by changing the way I looked at myself with love and pride instead of hate, I had found the effortless motivation to care for my body.”
She explains the shift in her mindset to be magical.
“I got the body I had always dreamed of. The bikini body that I thought was not ever going to be possible for me after being covered in stretch marks, has became a reality for me. It started, though, with me loving myself first. Being grateful for what I had, not wishing for something better.”
Sharny & Julius
Sharny closes her post with an encouragement to ALL women:
“Stretch marks or no stretch marks, IVF of no IVF, vaginal or C section. Breastfeed or bottle feed, it doesn’t (sic) matter. Even if you chose not to have kids or couldn’t have kids…
You’re perfect.
Your kids love you.
You should love you.
Stop beating yourself up and start loving yourself. For the magic that is a woman’s body is what you have.”
May this lift you up today, and be a reminder to all women to love yourself first. Share Sharny’s words with a woman you love today, and remember that you were made completely and positively perfect in the image of God.
