My Mum made me love my Body.

I recently read an article on cosmopolitan about how this women tells her story about how her mum's constant dieting and telling her how to dress etc.. Made her hate her body. So then I realised that for me personally my mother had done the complete opposite, despite me personally struggling with my  own appearance. My single mum made me love my body. 

My mum has never been the kind of mother who cares so much about appearance, she believes in originality and although her brutal honesty about my in fact unflattering hijab styles often got me quite annoyed, I knew at heart she wants what is best for me. Growing up with my mother and her own weight "issues" has taught me that despite her not being of ideal body size to society's standards she is an incredibly out  going person (say Allahhumabarik) teaching me that you can be whoever you choose despite your appearance.  

I remember once when I was in school and at that time my brother also went to the same school. So in this class (or study session) my brother was helping out the younger years in maths, I happened to be one of the people needing help. I can't really say what happened but essentially these two girls who were sitting next to me were comparing my brother appearance to mine. I remember one of the girls commenting about my nose saying something like  "look at that hump she has, her brother's doesn't". At that point in time the comment really hurt me because my nose was a major insecurity for me. That single comment confirmed my greatest fear that everyone was in fact looking at my nose. I went home in tears crying. My mum believes in tough love, which for a person like me who can go weeks wallowing in her own pity, it's the best thing for me. She quickly made me realise that by in fact getting upset about the whole situation I was allowing myself to become a victim to other's opinions.

It's interesting because other women often call my mother "fat" (perhaps jokingly) which often made me extremely angry but my mother on the other hand never let it get to her. She taught me that people's cruel comments don't need to be the centre of your life. But most importantly she taught me that your body is a gift from God and that we need to thank our Lord every single day because you never know what could be taken away from you.

What has that special person in your life taught you? Leave it in the comments below and I'd appreciate you all to make dua for my mother's speedy recovery as she's still in her cast.