When my husband and I found out we were expecting a child, we were happy beyond words. I was 33 years old, and our firstborn son was a beautiful surprise. We had prayed for this child, and the Lord graciously answered our prayers. We felt so blessed. Then, I found my body undergoing constant changes. My pants no longer fit me. The dreaded “morning sickness” nausea and vomiting became a nearly daily routine. The newness of it all was overwhelming. The joys of future motherhood I anticipated had been blurred by the current struggles of pregnancy. Pain and fear became my focal point.
As I shared my experience with other moms, I found I was not alone. Other first-time mothers had fought this battle. What helped clear up the blurry conditions of their pregnancies was the Word of God. Learning from their example, I turned to God’s Word for truth and discovered two truths that clarified the perspective of my pregnancy.
Truth #1: Your Body Is Not Your Own
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 gives us the most foundational truth that our bodies are “the temple of the Holy Spirit”. As a result of Jesus purchasing us by His blood, we do not belong to ourselves. We belong to God, and I would have told you I joyfully believed this truth as a Christian. That is, until the beginning of my first trimester. Sick and tired of all the physical changes, I wanted a break. I wanted my pre-pregnancy body back.
I didn’t get a break, but the Lord broke me to expose my heart. On paper, I had believed my body belonged to God but, in reality, my heart was fighting for control. I wasn’t ready to admit it, because I thought pregnancy was supposed to be the most joyful season of your life. Yet, I was struggling both physically and spiritually. I never realized how much I functioned as though my body belonged to me.
Conviction turned to comfort when I realized how God intentionally designed the mother’s body to nurture the new life growing within her. An expectant mother’s body not only cares for her needs but prioritizes the needs of the baby inside her. I began to see how the Lord took my bodily struggles to physically sustain my child, using the pain of constant nausea to protect my baby from hurt and harm.
I am convinced I am not the only mother who needs to hear and share the comforting truth our bodies are not our own. Whether you are an expectant mother or minister to mothers, what a blessed truth our bodies belong to God and are designed by God! We worship this God, who faced physical suffering on the cross to endure and redeem us so we may have life. Jesus preserves and gives us life. We are His! When we hold onto this truth and its implications during our time of pregnancy, something as horrible as morning sickness can become a sweet reminder of God’s goodness.
Truth #2: Hormones Are Not A “Free Pass” To Sin
We need such sweet reminders of God’s character because we can too easily justify our sin. We can have a distorted view of how we view sin. The question, “Have you yelled at your husband yet?” reveals this problem. I will not forget the first time I heard the question. A godly friend who I looked up to asked me it with a smirk on her face. She exclaimed the different occasions where she felt a sense of relief after screaming at her husband while she experienced discomfort during pregnancy. She finished with saying, “It’s okay, honey. You have a pass.” I wish I could tell you this was the only instance in which this question was asked and such counsel was given. Sadly, it became as common as “Are you getting popcorn at the movies?”
Yet, is it true? Do we really have a “free pass” to sin just because of our hormones? Please don’t misunderstand me. Hormones are a real thing. Hormones are a real thing. They are the body’s chemical messengers. They let the body know what is going on inside of it. For instance, our hormones are signals telling us, “Okay, we are good. We are eating enough protein, drinking plenty of water, sleeping well, and exercising adequately. You can feel calm and restful. You can focus on your tasks and be productive.”
Then, pregnancy comes, and our signals get crossed. Our hormones change course and communicate, “Wait, there is someone else inside of you. We must work double shift now. There is not enough iron for both of you. Eat dirt. We hate chicken. You are tired and sad for no reason other than you can’t sleep. You are restless. No one understands your pain. You’re allowed to scream to whoever is in front of you. Do it now!” I suspect some of you can relate.
For other women during pregnancy, they may not scream. Instead, they are sharp with their words, piercing the heart of the person they are aiming to hurt with their words. The phrase “I didn’t mean to say that” doesn’t excuse or justify the words neither is the phrase true. We need truth found in Psalm 141:3-4, where we are not blinded with excusing sin but crying out to the Lord to fight against sin, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds.”
Even when our sight is foggy by the hormones of a sinful and broken body, we see our experience doesn’t excuse our sin. Hormones can blur our vision and influence the way we think and feel every day, but they can’t blind us and don’t determine our responses. This is hopeful news, because God graciously provides hope in 1 Corinthians 10:13 to the expectant mother battling with her hormones. She is not alone in this fight. She has other sisters who understand, and she has a God who will strengthen her to endure. In His faithfulness, God will provide what we as expectant mothers need to honor Him in the way we treat others. We pursue holiness even when our hormones preach something different.
Meditating on and Ministering Truth
One of my initial concerns entering pregnancy is what people called “pregnancy brain”. I was scared to experience memory problems or absentmindness. However, with these two truths above, the Lord reminded me instead of fighting against the brain fog, I needed to fight for the time to meditate on and minister the truth of His Word.
Dear sister, the truth that we are not our own was and still is a truth worth reflecting on and returning to again as pregnancy progresses. We all have blind spots and need the encouragement to see how we can approach our pregnancies in a manner which glorifies God, not reasoning that hormones give us “a free pass” on sin but that holiness is the path we are called to walk, whether we are expecting or not. May we meditate and minister these truths from God’s Word, so in the midst of the pains of pregnancy, we can see these two clarifying truths from God’s Word.
Entrusted By God Ministries 