Review: Becoming Myself by Stasi Eldredge

The stated purpose of Becoming Myself: Embracing God’s View of You is to create hope within a woman for change in her life. If we lay down our damaging thoughts about ourselves, God will faithfully unveil our true selves and heal us from the past.

The most important journey any woman can take is the journey into becoming her true self through the love of God.

It’s a beautiful paradox. The more of God’s you become, the more yourself you become—the “self” he had in mind when he thought of you before the creation of the world.

The style is chatty, one on one. Eldredge tells the reader about her own issues with her mother, her weight, and her self-esteem. She talks about dreaming who God meant for us to be. Well, more that we already are that person and just need God to unveil it. She says, “What if change is just God unveiling who you really are?”

While I do struggle with self-esteem, my roots are completely different. Where she was raised in a secular household with a focus on perfectionism—and suffered abuse—I was raised in a loving Christian home. There is no abuse in my background.

My parents left a legalistic faction of the Mennonite church when I was a child, but they did not easily leave the culture behind. I always got the impression being female was something to be endured, not celebrated. Wearing pretty clothes, jewelry, or makeup were frowned upon. The go-to Scripture for being a woman was I Peter 3:3-4:

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

Except it would have been the KJV, not NIV!

All my life I’ve struggled with embracing femininity. Girlish things were a weakness to overcome. Wearing cute clothing was a direct path to flirting, then promiscuity. Whoa. No balance? It’s happy medium I still have trouble with.

Interesting state of affairs, since I’m writing a novella about a beauty pageant. Yes, this is a big stretch for me, but my dearest friends are encouraging me to step out into God’s view of beauty. To embrace it. To be confident of who I am in him.

I’d hoped this book, Becoming Myself: Embracing God’s View of You, would help in this journey. Instead, I found the book to be rather “soft.” Too much of a memoir, too little meat to help ground me. Yes, there are good things in it. Probably helpful to many women, judging by the 5-star reviews. But it didn’t meet me where I’m at.

“Book has been provided courtesy of David C. Cook and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller.” Opinions are mine alone.