The One Thing: Our Stomachs

Fitness Magazine asked both men and women, “What’s the one body part you want to change the most?” A staggering 36% of women easily proclaimed: their stomachs (Editors of Fitness Magazine, 2006). Other studies have been done that also come to the conclusion that women’s least liked body part is their stomach. Glamour magazine did a survey in which 55% of women had abusive thoughts about their overall weight or size with 43% saying certain areas they disliked, the highest being the stomach followed by the thighs (Dreisbach). Think about advertisements to lose weight. These advertisements most likely will broadcast the percentage, inches, or pounds you could lose of belly fat. So, what is the deal with women disliking their stomachs?

Well, babies are held in the woman’s stomach area – the womb - as they grow from conception to birth. This is one of the areas where we as women truly become mothers, where we truly learn more about our femininity and our role in God’s plan. The fact is that women were created with the primary purpose of being mothers, whether spiritually or by giving birth to their own children. The stomach is where new life begins and that is why it is so often attacked. The evil one wants to trick us by turning us into a culture of death and the one place he attacks is the first place where life begins. Think about how many abortions are happening in the world today. The place that is supposed to bring about new life is attacked into becoming a place of death, which leads to the death of motherhood and womanhood. This essential part of our femininity is constantly bombarded with thoughts of hatred and the lies of death.

However, a 34-year-old woman named Ange said this about her stomach, “This belly is not what it used to be before two little girls took up residence in it, but I’m slowly coming to terms with that. The fact that they like to snuggle up to it when they need comforting, reminds me of its purpose and its beauty” (McCombs, 2011). Ange recognizes the beauty of her stomach and the purpose of it.

We, as women, need to do the same with our stomachs. We need to realize that the stomach is the area of our bodies that life first takes place and where we learn about our womanhood. Even Jason Evert said that the stomach is the most sacred part of a woman's body.  

God sent His Son Jesus to enter into the world through our Blessed Mother. The very first place Jesus made His home on earth was in the womb of Mary. The evil one knows this as well, which is yet another reason for the stomach area of a woman to be attacked. However, we as women must truly realize that our stomachs are sacred for the reason that Jesus first resided in the womb of Our Lady. When we realize this we realize that the woman’s stomach is something truly beautiful. We will start to love our stomachs and in doing so start to embrace their purpose for motherhood and womanhood. We will start to grow and learn about our femininity and the role that women play in God’s plan.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Your Sister in Christ

Sources:

Dreisbach, S. (n.d.). Shocking body-image news: 97% of women will be cruel to their bodies today.

Editors of Fitness Magazine. (2006, June). The fitness body image poll.

McCombs, E. (2011). The xojane real girl belly project.

The Secret of Beauty

            There are a few pictures of the same event that have been floating around for quite some time now. In these pictures there is an old woman who has wrinkles on her face from all the smiles throughout her lifetime, who looks frail because her body is starting to tire from all the hard work and giving she has done, and whose hair I am sure has become white with age. There is also a young woman in this picture as well. She is about two feet taller than the old woman, is wearing a beautiful outfit on her youthful body, and a pearly white smile is spread across her face as she encounters this old woman. These pictures were taken 17 years ago of Mother Teresa and Princess Diana. Although popular culture states that in order to be beautiful we must look like Lady Diana, when we looks at this picture we cannot help but come to the realization that both these women are absolutely beautiful. 

            How could both of these women be so beautiful? By today’s standards Mother Teresa does not seem to be a woman that most magazines would want on the front page, let alone someone they would even consider beautiful. She is old, frail, and her face is covered in many wrinkles. Yet, when people would talk with her, make eye contact, and see her smile light up her face each person would walk away claiming that this little old lady is, “the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” This seems to make no sense at all in today’s world. Popular culture will tell us that in order to be beautiful we must be a Princess Diana: tall, thin, flawless, and most certainly not an old woman with wrinkles upon her face. Yet so many people still continued to claim that BOTH of these women are beautiful.

            How could this be? Well, the body is the physical reflection of the soul and the eyes are the very gateway to the soul (SOURCE). By seeing Mother Teresa people were seeing her soul, a soul that was engraved so deeply with the love of God. What made her so beautiful is that as she herself said, “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” Through this quote and her many other understandings of love, Mother Teresa was herself reflecting Love and the beauty of Love. That is why Mother Teresa is seen as the most beautiful woman in the world. Through her hands she gave all she could to help others as Jesus did, through her eyes she looked at the worth of others, through her words she expressed how we must love one another. Her soul was saturated with beautiful love and so her appearance reflected this beauty. St. Augustine understood this when he said, “love is the beauty of the soul.”

Think about it this way: everyone we meet sees us first by appearance, but as we get to know one another our appearances change by the simple way of how we love. We start to see honesty, purity, patience, intelligence, humor, and so many more beautiful gifts that make up our personality. We start to see this person differently. Others start to see what we sometimes cannot see in ourselves. Where we might see a crooked smile our friends see happiness and joy emanating from that very smile. These gifts of our personality that God has given us shine through our physical appearance and when transformed by grace, the light of Christ shines through us with all His beauty and splendor.  

           

Our Lady of Medjugorje was said to appear to Jelena, one of the visionaries, who asked her, “My Lady, why are you so beautiful?” Our Lady answered, “I am beautiful because I love. You want to become beautiful, love and you will not need the mirror so much.” Mirjana, another visionary, when asked how beautiful Our Mother is stated, “That it is not only the superficial beauty that you see from the outside. That something is radiating out of her.” Time and time again we see that if we want to be beautiful we must love.  

            This seems almost impossible that in order to be beautiful we simply have to love. How is this done practically though? Well, we must start off by deepening our relationship with Love (and Beauty!) Himself. Through opening our hearts more and more to God we make more room for Him each day anew. Like Mother Teresa said, “love until it hurts.” When we welcome God more and more we start to receive more graces in order to grow within our faith and love. By doing this we will better recognize little ways we can love others. Instead of scrolling through our Facebook newsfeed to judge others, we will start turning off our computers and volunteering at our churches or read the Bible, etc. We will start listening more to others and looking at them in the eyes instead of only allowing just our voice to be heard. We will start to give more to the poor instead of buying the newest iPhone or television set. We will stop gossiping and start saying nice things about everyone we meet. We will even start to forgive others as well. As we continue to do these “small things with great love” we will begin to seek virtue and avoid vice. We will begin to love more and hate less. In essence we will become beautiful because love will start to emanate through us and others will see just that, beauty transformed by grace.

A sister in Christ