Think back “centuries” ago when you were the age of your daughter. Did you feel beautiful? My guess is that you were like the rest of us – harboring some secret or not so secret dislike of one or more body parts or even your overall look. How did those doubts and self-criticism make you feel? Did you make some not so great choices to try and convince yourself you could look like your ideal of beauty?
Beauty or our perceived lack thereof is a tool Satan can use against us and our daughters (frankly our sons, too). So, I was interested to read a new book called Finding Beautiful by Rebecca Friedlander.
Finding Beautiful is billed as a Christian book, but it’s not what you would normally expect when looking for a Christian book on a topic like beauty. It reads almost more like a Humans of New York type of book than anything.
Each chapter features the story of a particular woman. The various women live around the world (including the United States). Each story relates the journey of feeling rejected and ugly to becoming able to see the beauty God had created in her.
Some of the stories are more traumatic than others. All are interesting, although perhaps not spellbinding. Personally, I think the emotional and perhaps spiritual impact was a bit lost when the author took the time to go through the details of her photo shoot. I wish she had instead included more photos and let them speak for themselves. (It became annoying that she continued to refer to photos which were not included in the book.)
I also found her interjection of her personal experiences after the woman’s story another distraction from what could have been a very powerful story of the woman she was featuring. It almost felt as if she had to keep pulling the attention back to herself. I’m sure she believed she was adding more examples, but in the end I believe it only weakened the main story.
I did appreciate that she took the time to add some biblical context she believed applied to the lessons she thought could be learned. The section called “God’s Story” was usually only a couple of pages long and referred to both Bible stories and passages. She even included a few discussion questions at the end of each chapter.
The book has some stories – both of the women and from the Bible – which can provide a great basis for discussions between mothers and daughters about true, godly beauty. I just wish the editing had been tighter – I think it would have made for a much more powerful book.
This book was given to me for free in exchange for my honest review. An affiliate link is included for your convenience.