True Beauty by Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Whitacre

I’ve been very excited to share with you about a new book by Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Whitacre calledTrue Beauty. This book tackles the extremely relevant topic of biblically defined beauty. I truly enjoyed this book and feel that it is so important for us as women to have a theologically grounded view of beauty as we walk through a culture that is inundated with false and deceptive portrayals of the real thing. My full review of True Beauty is included in Credo Magazine’s latest issue, “Churchy Gimmicks,” on pages 80-82.

Here are some quotes from my review:

“The pursuit of beauty, the authors say, must really begin as a pursuit of God who ‘is the ultimate, unchanging, eternal standard of beauty. He is the Author, Creator, and Bestower of beauty. His beauty transcends time and culture. It never changes and never fades. In order to know what true beauty is, we must see God.’ 

For this reason, we should not spurn beauty or our innate desire as God’s image-bearers to be beautiful. But rather, our pursuit of beauty must be founded on an obsession with the one who is truly and perfectly beautiful. An obsession with him, will transform our personal pursuit of beauty. As Mahaney and Whitacre declare: ‘True beauty is to behold and reflect the beauty of God.’”

“One of the greatest strengths of True Beauty, in my opinion, was found in the second to last chapter which dealt with trusting the Lord. In a culture inundated with false ideals of beauty, many women struggle with the fear that God’s standard of beauty isn’t truly enough. We know that living in the real world means dealing with the sin in and around us. For instance, many women struggle with the fear of their husbands comparing them to the half-naked fashion models in commercials, movies, and on billboards. They struggle will feeling truly beautiful, when they know that their husbands are continually inundated with unrealistic images of worldly beauty. But this, Mahaney and Whitacre stress, is forgetting that God is living and active in our lives and in our husband’s lives. This type of fear reveals that we do not truly trust the Lord to guard our husband’s minds and progressively sanctify them just as the he is sanctifying us.”

You can read my full review in this month's issue of Credo Magazine by following this link to Credo’s Blog.