Good Reads: Beauty Begins by Chris Shook & Megan Shook Alpha

"Think about it. If everything were perfect in your life, you wouldn't need God. You wouldn't pray and connect with Him. You wouldn't rely on Him. And you would miss out on the whole reason you were created - to be in a relationship with your Creator."

"My brokenness leads me to the Beautiful One and the true source of my beauty. Beauty begins in brokenness, because beauty begins when I come to the end of myself and totally surrender to Him." -Megan Shook Alpha in Beauty Begins

What a refreshing change this book is from the last one that I reviewed. The two paragraphs above are the exact thing that the book It's Not Fair is missing.

Beauty Begins is a peek of sunshine through a week of clouds. Saturated in truth, relateable stories, sometimes hard truths, and most importantly - the Gospel message, Beauty Begins is the perfect read for any woman or girl to go through.

Through nine short chapters, authors Chris Shook and daughter Megan Shook Alpha work together to write a beautiful reminder of where our true reflection lies and how to attain that.

The book is written in three sections, the first being a look at our outer beauty and how difficult and useless it is to try to attain the world's version of "beauty." Moving into section two, reminding us that true beauty lies in the heart and not in what we wear. (While the two don't condemn looking beautiful and working to look our best, they remind us that it's easier to forget about what we look like on the outside when we are caring for the needs of others.) And finally finishing the book off by challenging us to stand in Truth versus going along with the worldly ways.

Author Chris Shook shares a little encouragement to moms about leading their children that I was completely struck by: "If you were leading your daughter down a hiking trail and halfway down the path you suddenly fell into a ditch covered with poison ivy and filled with snakes, wouldn't you warn her? Wouldn't you yell, 'Stop! Don't take another step! This is a bad path!' Of course you'd warn her! So why do we hesitate to ward our children about real-life ditches we've fallen into? The enemy uses a strange mixture of pride and the fear of hypocrisy to silence us in the very areas where our kids need us the most. Far from being disqualified, you're actually in a great position to talk to your kids if you've made the same mistake in the past. You can help them avoid the hurt that you had to endure. The mistakes you've made give you the authority to say, 'You know what? I've been down that road, and let me tell you, it's awful. I still have scars from it. I love you, and I don't want to see you go through the same thing."

Is it just me, or does this kind of thing not get told enough to us as moms? So much wisdom was shared in that short excerpt.
Beauty Begins speaks to mothers, daughters, women, girls - it's geared to be well rounded for all ages. While I wouldn't read it to my 10 year old (it might be a little over her head) even a 12 or 13 year old may be very encouraged by it! I think the main age the book is geared towards would be high school and college age, it was a good read for myself to read, nearing 30. (wow that was strange to write!!!)

Ending the book with a chapter by their husbands, the men write to us as women and even to other men, to encourage all around what a true cheerleader our men are to be for us! They share the honor and respect that they have for their wives and the Biblical truths about women's identity in Christ.

To close us off, this book was an AMAZING read, I am SO glad that I received this one!!! This would be a great birthday, graduation, mother's day, or Christmas gift!!!

I highly recommend it (I may even use it over the summer with our youth group!).



I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

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