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A review by glowberry12
The Insatiable Quest for Beauty: A young woman's guide to overcoming our culture's obsession with perfection by Amanda Robinson
5.0
For the last month or so, I've been doing a lot of self-reflection. This book has been one of the ways in which I've attempted to look at things differently. I don't want to go through my entire testimony of self-discovery and discovering my own self-worth (I'm still working on it, to be honest), but I feel like I've come a long way and a lot of how my thinking and perspectives have changed has to do with this book. It's made me realize that I'm not alone in my struggles with beauty, or being good enough, or struggling with the fact that I had no "real" testimony. The entire point of this book was to help young women discover their "insatiable quest." What is it that they keep striving for but will never be happy with the outcome? In my case, it's perfectionism--feeling let down when I don't do something perfectly the first time around, feeling sad when I don't feel perfect. It's become something that has eaten up my mind. Letting go of your insatiable quest is difficult and letting God take over is even more so. But to be truly happy with yourself, God needs to have a say.
I really enjoyed Tiffany's voice in this book. She feels like an older sister who won't judge you because of things that have happened in your life because she's gone through some of the same things and only has your best interests at heart. She's real and openly admits that she has struggled with the concept of beauty (as most young women have). It's always, "am I pretty enough?" or "I think I'd be more lovable if I was prettier." It's always the comparison game to someone prettier and "more fit" than you. I'll admit that sometimes I struggle with this, but Tiffany is right there saying that she understands and was able to overcome those doubts with God's love.
And then the testimony thing...I've struggled with this for so long. I've had to provide a testimony for different religious organizations and people have asked me what my testimony is and I've always found myself staring at a blank page or struggling for words because if I've been a Christian my whole life, how can I have a testimony? It was so funny because as I was reading the section about testimonies, Tiffany said the exact same thing that popped into my mind while trying to get some words out. "Should I just go out, do drugs, and sleep with multiple people to give me a way to come back to God? This is how a testimony is supposed to be, right?" But she shut that down! Some of the most amazing words I have ever read came from this book because it opened my eyes to a power I didn't know I had. Even though my testimony is "boring" like I always tell people it is, Tiffany said, "God spoke to my heart...and showed me that I had the opportunity to testify of God's faithfulness, because I'd walked with Him my whole life. Whatever your story, whether you've made a ton of mistakes of whether you've walked with Him your whole life--either way, He wants to use the things you've experienced to bring life to others." And honestly, this meant so much to me. My testimony may not be grand and filled with mistakes that brought me closer to God, but because of my faith in him, I could testify for his love.
And in a lot of ways, I think this book had brought me closer to understanding God's love for me. And it makes me feel...I don't know...light, I guess.
Honestly, it's more like 4.5 stars because I think some of what was said felt "too good" to really make any difference. Tiffany made things sound like God is the only one able to satisfy us, when really there are many things that can make us happy and satisfy us--maybe that's God's will?
"As long as I was living for myself, what other people thought of me would continue to matter more than anything else. I would never be free from my quest for beauty. But when I started living like my heavenly mission was the most important thing...that's when freedom would come. Because freedom doesn't come when Jesus is just part of our lives. It comes when He is our life."
I really enjoyed Tiffany's voice in this book. She feels like an older sister who won't judge you because of things that have happened in your life because she's gone through some of the same things and only has your best interests at heart. She's real and openly admits that she has struggled with the concept of beauty (as most young women have). It's always, "am I pretty enough?" or "I think I'd be more lovable if I was prettier." It's always the comparison game to someone prettier and "more fit" than you. I'll admit that sometimes I struggle with this, but Tiffany is right there saying that she understands and was able to overcome those doubts with God's love.
And then the testimony thing...I've struggled with this for so long. I've had to provide a testimony for different religious organizations and people have asked me what my testimony is and I've always found myself staring at a blank page or struggling for words because if I've been a Christian my whole life, how can I have a testimony? It was so funny because as I was reading the section about testimonies, Tiffany said the exact same thing that popped into my mind while trying to get some words out. "Should I just go out, do drugs, and sleep with multiple people to give me a way to come back to God? This is how a testimony is supposed to be, right?" But she shut that down! Some of the most amazing words I have ever read came from this book because it opened my eyes to a power I didn't know I had. Even though my testimony is "boring" like I always tell people it is, Tiffany said, "God spoke to my heart...and showed me that I had the opportunity to testify of God's faithfulness, because I'd walked with Him my whole life. Whatever your story, whether you've made a ton of mistakes of whether you've walked with Him your whole life--either way, He wants to use the things you've experienced to bring life to others." And honestly, this meant so much to me. My testimony may not be grand and filled with mistakes that brought me closer to God, but because of my faith in him, I could testify for his love.
And in a lot of ways, I think this book had brought me closer to understanding God's love for me. And it makes me feel...I don't know...light, I guess.
Honestly, it's more like 4.5 stars because I think some of what was said felt "too good" to really make any difference. Tiffany made things sound like God is the only one able to satisfy us, when really there are many things that can make us happy and satisfy us--maybe that's God's will?
"As long as I was living for myself, what other people thought of me would continue to matter more than anything else. I would never be free from my quest for beauty. But when I started living like my heavenly mission was the most important thing...that's when freedom would come. Because freedom doesn't come when Jesus is just part of our lives. It comes when He is our life."