In pregnancy, no one talks about the ugly stuff. Well...except for Jenny McCarthy.
You know, the stuff that makes you feel like you are the only "glowing pregnant" women out there who feels nasty & think something is wrong with how you're doing it?
- Oily skin.
- Swollen feet.
- Extra mucus in y9our face.
- The need for your husbands anti-monkey butt powder
- Hemorrhoids that make you dance in your seat like a toddler during an extra long sermon
- Hair. Not just the extra locks on your head that many have been dreaming of but Hair...everywhere
- The belly button that needs a band-aid to hide its new unattractive outty status but some days that doesn't even help
- Insentient sweat. Man sweat. Soak your shirt not just under the arms but under the boobs, on the back and oh, your pants- crotch
- "Discharge" Wait, I thought this glorious time of pregnancy was free of the evil "period". Maybe...but there's other stuff that apparently lives in there
- Gas. Yeah, tooting in your sleep. Crop dusting the stranger in Wal-Mart who just told you how adorably pregnant you are. Clearing out a gas station with the stench from...
- Constipation. Then there's the other end of that...upset tummy" because you dared to attempt the Mexican food
- Stretching. Not just the marks to come but the constant feeling of being a balloon a small child is trying to overfill with air just to hear it pop.
- Panting like an oversize smoker who needs an inhaler all because you walked to the kitchen for water {lets be honest- Dr Pepper}
- Pimples. Not just on your face. Maybe they should just be called growths...Itchy arm pits.
- Mood swings that are so bizarre to the naked eye but for real to you who are living it
- Terrible circulation
- Dried-out skin
Now that maybe you feel more "normal" about your less-than-glamorous process of growing a human, I'm sure some of you sweethearts are in complete shock that I typed out those truths. Well, somebody needs to say it. As long as we sit around thinking we're the only pregnant person out there dealing with the less-than-desirable aspects the longer we hide, suffer, and feel ashamed.
Here's the kicker. These nasty pregnancy symptoms? They're exactly like SIN. That adorable perfect Christian mom you are always admiring? She deals with her own symptoms such as "discharge", hair, and gas that are her secret sins. Maybe that seemingly perfect role model is the face you're attempting to preserve. As long as you're not confessing the "less than ideal" in your life, the longer you are living with that hidden fear and shame.
That's exactly where satan wants us. In the dark. Living with a secret we think will end us. In that place, we can't be healed if possible. We can't be comforted. We can't be released from or feelings of inadequacy, failure, and basic disgusting feeling.
There is freedom in confession.
What secret symptoms are you hiding that need to be voiced? What is satan holding over your head keeping you in bondage? What fear are you holding on to worrying about the results of...telling someone?
Confess your sin to one another. {James 5:16} Shout your faults from the roof tops. God will be glorified all the more. 2 Corinthians 12:9
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