Compliment Your Mirror Day

Happy Compliment Your Mirror Day, mamas! This “unofficial holiday” challenges us to not only look at our outward appearance in the mirror and compliment the reflection staring back at us, but it is also a day to celebrate the strong, unique, talented, capable women we are as well!

Let me ask you something:

“When was the last time you looked at yourself in the mirror and legitimately complimented yourself?

I’m embarrassed to say I can’t even begin to remember the last time I intentionally stared into the mirror and chose to focus on what characteristics physically and internally that I like about myself.

Us women have an awful tendency to knock ourselves down to the quick, don’t we? It is ten times easier to think of a list of everything we would love to change about ourselves rather than what we already do like about ourselves. We so often see other women’s beauty and can very easily compliment them, but when it comes to looking inwardly or staring at ourselves, our beauty isn’t as obvious to us; even though it is very well there.

And then we become mothers, and boy do we take our negative self talk to a whole new level.

Stretchmarks, c-section scars, breasts that are not as perky anymore, extra junk in our trunk, our bellies look like a pancake; the list goes on and on of what we see when we look at our postpartum bodies. We reminisce on what we used to look like, and what we used to be able to do before we gained all this weight, and we reflect back on the days when we could bounce on the trampoline without having to wear Depends. We start to view motherhood as the thing that “ruined” our bodies, when in fact we should be celebrating everything our bodies have achieved!

Our bodies have created 10 little toes and fingers. Our bodies knew exactly how to create our babies’ limbs, facial characteristics, organs, and brain! Our bodies nurtured and gave life to another human being. And after those long 9 months of watching your body transform in ways you never could have imagined, your body then informs you when it is time to go into labor.

Then after hours of pushing yourself during labor, or healing from the intense recovery of a c-section, you look down and see the most beautiful gift ever given to you, staring right into your eyes. YOUR BODY created this gift. And in that moment when you are holding your baby, you no longer care about the grueling 9 long months of pregnancy. You no longer are hung up on the fact that you have developed stretch marks. No, you are no longer caught up on those frivolous things because all that matters is the life that is in your arms.

And as we navigate motherhood and the journey it all takes us on, we find that not only have our bodies changed physically, but we have changed inwardly as well. We discover that we are stronger than we ever could have imagined. Our hearts expand in ways we never knew it could, and we love our children with every fiber of our being. We become wiser, more sure of ourselves, and more grounded in who we are. In my own experience I can truly say that motherhood has helped me see what I am made of, and it has changed me for the better.

So, yes. Motherhood has in fact changed me.

It has changed my figure, my body, and my reflection in the mirror. It has changed me into a different person than I was before, inwardly.

Motherhood has changed everything about me, and I am so much better off because of it!

So mamas, yes, I challenge you today to celebrate your inward and outward beauty. Let us celebrate this day and point out some characteristics about ourselves and compliment ourselves! But, as the next morning comes, I’m going to challenge you to do something a little harder. I am going to challenge you to pick out at least one thing about yourself every day moving forward to compliment yourself on. To start feeding your mind positive self-talk, and to finally see yourself as the strong, beautiful, capable, woman and mother you are!

You will become a better mother to your children by genuinely loving the woman that God has created you to be; stretch marks and all. And most importantly mamas, your children are watching your every move. They are watching how you respond to others around you and how you respond to yourself. If your children see you degrading your looks, or putting yourself down frequently, they will grow up thinking that those thoughts are “okay” to say to oneself; and they will begin the vicious cycle of lies all over again, into another generation.

Let us embrace all that we are, and all that we have been created to be. Let us look in the mirror, look into our hearts, and speak out loud the TRUTH of who we are. And after we call out those beautiful qualities in ourselves, may we look down at our sweet children staring up at us, and speak out loud the truth of who they are, and call out their beautiful qualities as well. Let’s raise up children with positive self-talk, mamas.

But it all starts with US.