What Makes You Beautiful
What Makes You Beautiful: 20 Daily Devotions for Girls
By: Kristen Wetherell
I really enjoyed Kristen Wetherell’s book, Humble Moms, so when I saw she had written this devotional for girls, I was curious to see what it was like.
I got it to read with my (just turned) 9-year-old daughter. She’s recently grown more and more interested in fashion and accessories and all the things. I thought it would be a good time to look at what really makes a person beautiful.
The book is marketed for 9-12 year olds so she is on the younger side of that range. I think it might be better to wait another year or two and try it again. She didn’t seem overly interested or invested in taking the time with it.
Granted, it was the first daily devotional we’ve tried for her and it was a struggle to get into any kind of routine with our schedules. It felt like something I needed to do with her rather than sending her off to experience on her own. Some of the devotions seemed to require some explanation or clarification for her.
There were a lot of good truths in there for her to read and know, but some of the concepts were a bit beyond where she is at right now.
The whole book revolves around a rhyming poem Kristen wrote. Each day takes a section of the poem and identifies a Beautiful Truth like ‘God made me to know and show his beauty’ or ‘Earthly beauty will fade, but God’s beauty will last forever’ or ‘The love and acceptance of Jesus is what makes you beautiful.’
There is a corresponding verse, a very short devotion, a wrap-up prayer, and creative prompt to journal or take some other action to put into practice what was learned.
In her note at the beginning of the book, Kristen says, “This book is for us, yes— but it is all about him. The more we learn to marvel and wonder at his beauty, the more beautiful we will become.”
‘Heart’ is the heart of the book. That our hearts are being transformed by the beautiful One who makes us more like him. That it’s about what God says is true of you. That it’s about loving him, enjoying his good gifts, and following his design.
I don’t disagree with any of that. I think, especially for younger readers, it’s okay to repeat and ingrain that truth in their hearts.
But I’m just not sure what I think about this as a devotional. Maybe the younger girls don’t need a whole devotional to hear these simple truths. And the older girls maybe need more than this devotional to really understand the complexities of beauty and the wisdom needed to think about it.
There are so many pressures as females in our cultural world to see beauty a certain way. It’s hard to parse out what is true and what is not. What we should care about and what we shouldn’t.
To be honest, I think I’m still struggling to wrap my mind around what it means to be beautiful as a grown woman. So it’s hard to know how to communicate it to my younger daughters.
Where I get hung up is that we can’t ignore that physical beauty exists. How do we communicate honestly about physical beauty and wanting to be seen as physically beautiful even as we know that true beauty is within? The Lord doesn’t look at the outward appearance but looks at the heart.
Yet God made us to recognize beauty in what we see outwardly. In nature and in people. Every girl wants to be told they are beautiful. That their face and the way they look is beautiful.
When my daughter gets all fancied up and comes to show me am I not to say- ‘Wow, you look beautiful!’? Am I supposed to say- ‘Cool outfit, but remember, beauty is on the inside and what you wear doesn’t matter!’ To reject all external beauty seems to be missing something and sending an incomplete message.
I also think the conversation around modesty is always tricky. This book doesn’t address it— which is probably the right thing considering its scope is 20 short daily devotionals for younger girls— but it is another aspect of teaching our daughters what makes them beautiful and that even though their physical bodies are beautiful, presenting our bodies as objects to be admired or lusted after is not part of that.
I have yet to find a really good resource on talking about modesty. And crop tops and bikinis are somehow normal even for my 9-year-old’s grade of girls.
This will be an ongoing conversation and journey with my daughters and maybe this book will help here and there with it, but I think I need something else to supplement and inform our understanding of beauty— outwardly and inwardly.
Also if I’m going to encourage my daughter to do a daily devotional, I think I might want it to be more Scripture oriented rather than topic oriented.
Recommendation
I usually like most books from Crossway and I definitely do still recommend Kristen Wetherell’s book I mentioned already, but for some undetermined reason, I’m just not sure where I land on this one.
I think there are benefits to reading this with your daughter, but it’s not going to be a one-stop shop on explaining beauty and everything that goes along with it.
There are certainly important truths all girls should know within these pages, and it is a beautiful book. I like that it’s only 20 days and is a manageable time frame.
But I think I just wish there was a little more to it. More Scripture, more discussion. More challenges. More application. And for that, it most likely reaches beyond the 9-12 age range it was written for.
So what do I want? I’m not sure yet. Mixed feelings on this one.
If you’ve read this with your daughter, please share your experience. And if we try this one again and have a different experience, I’ll be sure to update my review in the future.
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