You're Not Enough and That's Okay: Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self Love by Allie Beth Stuckey Review

 Good Morning Bookish Friends :)

I pray today finds you all doing well, and I want to thank you all for joining me for another book review here on The Preppy Book Princess.

I'm Kirby, and I'm so thankful you're here!

One of my reading goals for 2023 was to read more Christian non-fiction books, and I particularly wanted to read more ones with substance and less of the fluffy titles that seem to always be marketed towards Christian women these days.

This title peaked my interest, and I wanted to give it a try.

I hope you'll all keep on reading down below to find out whether or not I thought it was worth the time to pick it up and read it!

You're Not Enough and That's Okay: Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self Love by Allie Beth Stuckey:

Source: Library

Publisher: Sentinel

Publication Date: August 11th, 2020

Genre: Christian Non Fiction/Christian Living

Synopsis:

From one of the sharpest Christian voices of her generation and host of the podcast Relatable comes a framework for escaping our culture of trendy narcissism—and embracing God instead.

We're told that the key to happiness is self-love. Instagram influencers, mommy bloggers, self-help gurus, and even Christian teachers promise that if we learn to love ourselves, we'll be successful, secure, and complete. But the promise doesn't deliver. Instead of feeling fulfilled, our pursuit of self-love traps us in an exhausting cycle: as we strive for self-acceptance, we become addicted to self-improvement.

The truth is we can't find satisfaction inside ourselves because we are the problem. We struggle with feelings of inadequacy because we are inadequate. Alone, we are not good enough, smart enough, or beautiful enough. We're not enough--period. And that's okay, because God is.

The answer to our insufficiency and insecurity isn't self-love, but God's love. In Jesus, we're offered a way out of our toxic culture of self-love and into a joyful life of relying on him for wisdom, satisfaction, and purpose. We don't have to wonder what it's all about anymore. This is it.

This book isn't about battling your not-enoughness; it's about embracing it. Allie Beth Stuckey, a Christian, conservative new mom, found herself at the dead end of self-love, and she wants to help you combat the false teachings and self-destructive mindsets that got her there. In this book, she uncovers the myths popularized by our self-obsessed culture, reveals where they manifest in politics and the church, and dismantles them with biblical truth and practical wisdom.

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

This year I wanted to dive into more Christian non fiction titles, and I wanted to read ones that weren't just all fluff with no substance, which seems to be the case for the majority of the ones marketed towards Christian women these days. I've grown weary of these kind of books within the genre, and often they barely seem to even remember to add Jesus into their works as an afterthought.

When I saw the title of this one, I was instantly intrigued. After all, I've spent the last couple of years growing incredibly worried about the amount of new age ideas that are taking the world, and many Christians, by storm. Self help and self love are being promoted more than ever, and I was looking forward to someone presenting a Biblical framework for counteracting these toxic, narcissistic ideas.

I definitely found what I was looking for in You're Not Enough and That's Okay by Allie Beth Stuckey. Stuckey tackles all off the issues with self love and searching within yourself from a Biblical perspective, and showcases that none of us are ever meant to be enough on our own. After all, if that was possibly, Jesus wouldn't have needed to die on the cross for us to be able to experience eternity with God!

Satan is sneaky and dishonest, and it was eye opening to see just how easily he's been able to turn the world to these selfish ways of thinking. This book made me take a good long look at some of the thought processes I've allowed to sneak into my own thinking as of late, and it's reenforced the point of how nothing else truly matters if Jesus isn't your center of everything.

This is a book that has the potential to make big waves in the Christian community, and I will be praying that it has the chance to do so.

My only overall complaint was that a couple of the passages of the book kind of highlighted the fact that the author appears to have come from a pretty affluent upbringing and her life now sounds very much the same. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's probably going to be hard for people who haven't had those same opportunities and happy endings to take some of her advice at face value.

I definitely think it's a worthwhile read, just be prepared that it may be hard for the average reader to relate to.

Final Rating: 4/5.

I'm thankful for a Christian living book aimed at women that's actually hard hitting and truly Biblical in its framework!

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)

This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.