Recreation: To Live and to Move in Motherhood
As a senior in high school, I ran on the JV cross-country team. Every race, no matter what school we competed against, I came in either dead last or very close to last. My friends on the team liked to tease me about it. They told me I could do better, that I wasn’t trying very hard, that I was too social and spent too much energy on talking. They were right. But I didn’t care. Because, unlike them, I joined cross-country purely for social reasons. Many of my closest friends went to the surrounding schools, and we all agreed to join our cross-country teams so we could see each other more frequently at the meets. I once even did a cartwheel over the finish line, just to show everyone how much I didn’t care. I had to run a few extra miles in practice for that small act of rebellion, but it was worth it.
More than fifteen years have passed since then. I’m thirty-five, cresting the hill to forty—not quite feeling old but knowing I’m not all that young either. I have birthed three children, gaining and losing nearly 150 pounds in my late twenties and early thirties. My body does not have the youthful vigor of my cross-country days that could go on a long run just to hang with my friends. Yet I know it’s important to move my body. I know the sluggishness of the newborn days, the exertion of the toddler stages, and the busyness of full schedules and after-school activities. Each season as a mother brings new challenges and energy levels—all filled with necessary work, activity, and movement. But as my body has inflated and deflated, there have been many seasons where all I wanted to do was move as little as possible. If I’m completely honest, the one thing that I could dig up to motivate me to go on a walk was the idea of getting my “body back after baby.” Yet there’s a difference between conforming our bodies to an Instagram post and moving them in order to be strong, healthy, and able to do the work required for life and motherhood.
Yet, movement is one grand way God designed humans to image and glorify him—and that’s the greatest motivation for stewarding our bodies well. We might experience various hindrances to activity throughout our lives—maybe through a disability, chronic health issue, pregnancy, or other circumstance—but we can still uniquely reflect and celebrate God’s good design for recreation, even as we await a future of perfect freedom and movement with heavenly bodies one day.
Move to Image God
Nearly every morning in our backyard, if I look out the window at the right time, I’ll see eight to twelve deer by the playset. Some days they meander along, not a care in the world; other days they’re running and jumping, beelining it to hide in the woods. Genesis 1:21 tells us that God made living creatures to move—that life and movement go together. God didn’t make us trees or plants, stationary life rooted to the ground—no, his creatures are to walk and run and jump. Even more so, as human beings—image bearers of our God—movement is a significant means of reflecting, worshiping, and serving our good Creator. Adam and Eve were to work the garden and subdue creation[1]—their existence on the earth required movement for work and as a blessing to enjoy for recreation.
Paul says in Acts 17:28, “in him we live and move and have our being.” Like the Israelites wandering the desert, Ruth gleaning in the fields, David dancing in the streets, Jesus handling the tools in his trade work, we too live and we move. We can easily marvel at a fawn learning to stand up in a meadow, seeing a clear picture of God’s handiwork, but have we thought about how our bodies—our muscles, tendons, and bones all stamped with the imago Dei—uniquely glorify God? Our entire anatomy and physiology are evidence of his fearful and wonderful design. If you can’t see it in yourself, look at your children and feel the wonder of God’s divine making. Movement shows we are alive and we were created by God.
Move to Be Happy and Healthy
God designed our bodies to benefit from regular activity and recreation. Scientific studies back this up, showing that movement helps prevent many health issues, produce mood-boosting endorphins, lower anxiety and stress through hormones like serotonin and norepinephrine, improve cardiovascular function, strengthen metabolism, and raise energy levels.[2] In our 2022 Risen Motherhood survey—taken by nearly 10,0000 moms—thirty-nine percent shared they struggle with anxiety, and forty-five percent struggle with mental health. And I would bet all the spa days in the world that every mom would say they could use an extra dose of energy and happiness. While movement alone won’t change our spiritual state or solve all our problems, God created our mind, body, and spirit to be mysteriously intertwined and connected. Whether it’s dancing in the kitchen with the kids, playing soccer in the backyard, heading out for a five-mile jog, or raising a hand up to say “hi,” daily movement can work wonders for our emotional and physical health as we engage in motherhood.
Move to Benefit Others
Sometimes when I’m thinking about how I “should work out” or I “need to move my body,” I’m really thinking only of myself. Some days I want to lose a few pounds; some days, it’s wanting the mood boost endorphins provide. And while these reasons are not necessarily wrong, physical fitness is also a tool God has given us to serve others, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices of worship.[3] As we strive to keep our bodies active, we can be the kind of mothers that are quick to jump off the couch to pick up the living room, to play tag in the yard when the neighbor kids ask, to carry in groceries for an elderly neighbor, and to run from point A to point B at our teen’s cross-country meet to cheer them on. I’ll never forget my kids’ faces when I hopped on the trampoline with them for the first time (with proper, ahem . . . undergarments ready). They were in shock and awe, and none of us could stop laughing. When our bodies are used to movement, we’re more ready to serve when asked, more able to work when needed, and more primed to do the “good works, which God prepared beforehand” (Eph. 2:10). Even the small act of moving our mouths into a smile can benefit others, showing the welcoming face of a mother whose joy rests in Jesus.
Over my years as a mom, I have ebbed and flowed in my level of recreation. After birthing each child, my physical activity was nonexistent. For the large majority of my days, I was sedentary, sleeping and sitting as a baby’s warm cheek rested on my chest. Movement in that season looked like rocking in a chair, bouncing a colicky baby, and tip-toeing out the door of a sleeping toddler. I don’t regret that for a second. But as the weeks passed and my season changed, I slowly started to move more again. From simply going on walks, to printing off a “couch to 5K program,” to running backyard races with my kids, to investing in a home gym and exercising five days a week, my physical activity looks like a stock market graph, constantly going up and down in unpredictable ways.
As mothers, there will be seasons where our movement is at a minimum due to circumstances (such as pregnancy, postpartum, or illness) and other seasons where we have freedom and ability to prioritize more intentional activity. As life and bodies allow, let's be mothers that embrace movement and activity as much as we’re physically able. Just as our children grow in their capabilities to crawl, then walk, then run, our joy for recreation can grow right along with theirs. Let’s see the wonder of the human body and marvel at how God made us to live and to move.
[1] Genesis 1:26-28
[2] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-benefits-of-exercise#TOC_TITLE_HDR_5
[3] Romans 12:1
Reflection Questions
In what ways have your thoughts and actions around physical movement changed after becoming a mother?
What are your current motivations for movement? Do they align biblically with God’s ideas?
How can regular exercise and movement help you serve your family and community well in this season and beyond?
Taking into account the season of motherhood you’re in (pregnancy, newborn phase, new adoption, high schoolers, etc.), your body’s abilities, and your schedule, what can movement look like for you?
Application Ideas
Take one child on a walk around the neighborhood or at a park. If they’re old enough, spend time intentionally talking with them about the things they care about. If they’re young, spend the time praying over them.
Find an exercise program online (there are many free ones on YouTube that don’t require equipment) and invite your kids to join. You’d be surprised how much stamina many of them have (and the laughs that will ensue)!
Have the entire family participate in a headstand challenge. (Feel free to use the wall and put your head on a pillow!) See who can stay up longest.
Set up an obstacle course in your basement or backyard. Invite neighbors to participate. Time each person as they go through (and make sure you do too)!
Spend some time looking up stretches online. See who can actually touch their toes, do a backbend, or make the flattest butterfly. Work on it for a few weeks and track progress.
Look up a TikTok dance challenge and learn it with the whole family. (Even if you don’t use the app, you can find many of these with a Google search.)
