Finding Peace With Your Reflection: A Beauty Begins Review & Giveaway

**Book received for review. All thoughts are my own.

When someone tells you you are beautiful....how do you react? Do you believe them? Do you agree?

I have to be honest, this is a compliment that I don't take well. Oh don't get me wrong, I appreciate the compliment and I thank whoever is saying it for their kind words... but I struggle to believe it. People are often surprised by this. Because I'm blond with blue eyes, because I wear a size 0 and am quite thin, because I fit these characteristics that our society says is beautiful...I should not have struggles with my reflection. And yet, like so many others, I do!

As a mother to a young girl, this is something that I really strive to work on for her. I don't want her to have these same insecurities. I want her to be able to look in the mirror and love the person she sees staring back at her. I don't want her to focus on the imperfections, but instead see herself the way I see her- absolutely, positively beautiful. This is the way God sees her too, and the way he created her to be. And you know what? I want to feel that way too!

Does this sound like you? I have just the book for you- Chris Shook & Megan Shook Alpha's fantastic new book, Beauty Begins.


You are, and always have been, beautiful. 
 
“Beauty begins. That’s the point of this book. Our understanding of beauty got started somewhere and somehow, and probably due to someone. Now that may have been a good start, but then again it may not have. But regardless of what your past looks like, we want to offer up this word of hope: it’s never too late to make peace with your reflection.” 
 
We live in a culture that’s obsessed with beauty. Walk by any magazine stand, turn on a television, or visit the local shopping mall, and you’ll be bombarded with the images and ideals that our culture believes are the epitome of what it means to be beautiful. And if you’re like most women, you’ve probably spent countless hours trying to measure up to this standard of beauty whether you realize it or not. 
 
But if you don’t make peace with your reflection, you’ll end up declaring war on yourself.
 
That’s where mother-daughter team, Chris and Megan Shook, want to help. In Beauty Begins, they explore the origins of beauty (hint, it didn’t start with a fashion magazine) and challenge each of us to trade the pressure of perfection for God's perfect love.
 
Poignant, relevant, and relatable, Beauty Begins is for every woman who wants to reclaim what it means to be truly beautiful. 


This book truly is a must read! I truly think that most of us as women find ourselves falling into that trap of trying to fit society's definition of beauty. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with wanting to look nice. I love fashion. I love jewelry. I love makeup. There is nothing wrong with enjoying these things.... unless it takes over. When we begin obsessing over these physical things and find ourselves forgetting that we are fearfully and wonderfully made- beautiful just as God intended us to be!

Beauty Begins takes us back to that idea and serves as a reminder of where true beauty began- with the One who created us all. Through personal stories and scripture we find ourselves really looking at the beauty we should be focusing on and truly changing the way we look in the mirror. This is something I think all women need at one point or another, and a book that I would definitely recommend to anyone struggling.

Beauty Begins is available to purchase now at your favorite Christian book retailer.

And one very lucky reader is going to win a copy for themselves. Enter using the Rafflecopter form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Winner will be contacted via e-mail after giveaway ends, and will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen. One entry per household, winning entry will be verified. Odds of winning depend on valid entries received. A Modern Day Fairy Tale is not responsible for prize delivery.