Fierce Beauty: A Book Review

We live in a culture obsessed with the outer shell. When I pause and think about the amount of time and energy and money we—I—put into our clothes, makeup, hair, schedules, cars, and homes…I’m uncomfortable with the way I pursue comfort. I contrast my life with that of my little girl in Africa. With the poor I see walking the streets. It sobers me.

I know life isn’t all about me…but sometimes I live like it is.

I finished the last few pages of Kim Meeder’s Fierce Beauty: Choosing to Stand for What Matter Most last night. LOVED it.

Kim and her husband run Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch, a ranch that rescues abused and neglected horses and invites hurting children to learn and grow by working with the horses. Fierce Beauty is her fourth book and shares her passion for living a purposeful life of serving the King. She uses one of my favorite writing forms—analogies—to teach lessons that reach deep into the heart. Each chapter first shares a story or experience (all of them incredible, captivating, or touching) and then relates that to our spiritual life in a unique, memorable way. I was both inspired and convicted throughout the book. I see how many times I live for myself and the ways this blinds me, burdens me.

I love her analogy of the princess-turned-warrior. She describes the self-entitled princess of this world, weighed down by her own selfishness and in captivity from living for herself. She urges women to throw down such crowns of entitlement, selfishness, and pride and to instead embrace a life of taking up a sword to fight for truth and beauty and hope—and for those drowning without it. This is where true beauty is found—in breaking the chains of worldliness and living a life of real freedom by service to God and others.

The battle is real. So let’s put on our armor, girls(Ephesians 6:10-17).

[This book was provided to me at no cost by Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing. This review contains my honest and original thoughts.]