To me, they are war stripes and they represent the changing, growing, stretching, retching, accommodating, aching, bearing, carrying, sharing, feeling, enduring, waiting, throbbing, twinging, adapting, re-shaping, creating, blooming, nurturing, persevering and producing that my body experienced for nine months and for another nine months just eight months later! My stretch marks bear witness that I gave a part of myself in order to give life to another - and another! I wear my stripes proudly and with the thought in mind that for every stripe I may look at in disgust, there is a woman out there who wishes she had them.
"Jesus endured physical brutality as the Atonement continued. It is written that Jesus was scourged (see Matthew 27:26), which means He was whipped with a lash that likely left he stripes referenced in Isaiah 53:5 with the promise "with his stripes we are healed." Many women have "stripes" or stretch marks as a reminder of the stretching her body experienced while being with child. Dr. Robert Bradley said they "should be worn as 'service stripes' of motherhood." Christ's stripes can be a reminder of the sacrifice she made for her child. Her body has changed. It bears the signs of service given in behalf of another."
The Gift of Giving Life: Rediscovering the Divine Nature of Pregnancy and Birth.
By Felice Austin, CHt, Lani Axman, Heather Farrell, CD (DOÑA), Robyn Allgood, AAHCC, and Sheridan Tipley, HCHI. (Pg 347).
Totally worth it!
