Becoming Myself (Book Review)

I finally finished a book and it didn't take me all year long! (Patting myself on the back!) I'm not an avid reader so a book has to be either really good, really interesting, or a requirement for something in order for me to read it.

The book Becoming Myself by Stasi Eldredge gets 5 stars from me.  It's excellent!  I've read several other books by Stasi and her husband John.  All of them have been excellent!  They have a ministry called Ransomed Heart Ministries and their books are for both men and women about relationships with the opposite sex, with family and friends, with God, understanding the heart of God, and becoming the best God created us and called us to be.  I LOVE their style of writing, especially Stasi's.  It's like she speaks my language.

I came across the book at my cousin's house.  I went visit her and I saw it on an end table in her living room.  I picked it up and said, "Oh, I love Stasi Eldredge!" and she said, "Oh really?  Take it!  I don't have time to read it so take it and let me know how it is."  (Or something along those lines...)  So, that's what I did.

Becoming Myself is a book about how we as women, can take all our woman-ness (which, encompasses quite A LOT of things) and we can seek the heart of God because His heart is for us.  He created us, as women, created our hearts, created our bodies, created our emotions, our feelings, our thoughts...everything about us.  He made and designed and purposed...to be beautifully, and uniquely different woman...and very different from man.

Perhaps I liked the book so much because I sometimes struggle to figure out how to "be myself".  If we are honest, I think we all do at times.  I struggle to be and balance the person I want to be with the person I am currently.  I have good intentions to be and act a certain way, but that it doesn't always happen.  I  have dreams and desires in my female heart that are uniquely placed there by God, yet I often try to stifle them in order to be something or act or certain way, to become who others expect, or want, or need me to be.  I don't think I even fully see myself as a "full grown woman" yet.  Perhaps that's because I haven't grown since 8th grade,  I can wear pants I wore in high school, and until recently I lived with my mom and dad. I am not fully confident in who "myself" is.  

I think part of it is that I was raised by VERY strong, intelligent, women of true inner (and outer) beauty, and incredible faith.  Both my grandmothers, my mom, my aunts...to me, they are the definition of women of God.  They raised me to be all those things, taught me to be a lady in every sense of the word, yet I feel like I will never quite attain it.  I feel as though, I'm continually striving to see things as they do, to think like they do, to believe and trust and hope and have faith like they do.  And if I were to have a daughter one day, would I ever be able to raise her they way they have raised me?  I have these thoughts, and I don't think I'm alone in thinking them.  

But then I remember that I'm different.  I've always been different.  I've been through things in life that no many have.  Each one of us is different.  Each one of us has a story that has made us uniquely us; that no one else can truly relate to.  I'm walking this earth (literally) with only half of my heart working and pumping, while (figuratively) I'm wearing it on my sleeve.  And God didn't make a mistake with me.  He made me exactly, precisely, perfectly, the way I am, the way He intended me to be.  That's how he made you too.  And you too! And you, and you, and you, and you, and you!

He made us woman on purpose.  He made woman for a purpose.  He made woman with purpose. Not so we could march around naked with signs in our hands screaming profanities and refusing to shave our armpits.  He made us so we could do all that men couldn't do.  He made us the companion to man.  He made us bare children.  He made us see things from a different perspective.  He made us to pray different prayers.  He made us to have our own opinions.  He made us to share more of His heart.  He made us to display beauty and compassion, kindness and care.  He made all of creation, took a seat back and looked at it, and then said, "WOMAN!"  All of creation had occurred before He made woman but it wasn't right yet.  We are what made it complete.  We are  the cherry ( and the sprinkles) on top!

Stasi talks about this in several of her books, and in Becoming Myself she goes even further and saying that accepting this fact about ourselves as women, means accepting all that comes along with it...the good, the bad, the ugly.   The good hair and make up days, the bad hair and bad mood days, and the ugly one week out of the month where we act like and feel like a crazy person whose body seems like it's trying to kill us from the inside.  When we say things like, "I hate being a woman!", even if it's only a few days out of each month, we are saying that we hate what God has created, saying we don't want to accept being who, what and how He created us.  I am incredibly guilty of this.  I'm an emotional person as it is and I'd be lying if I didn't think that men seem to have the easy way out.  But if I believe that God didn't make a mistake with my heart, that also means I believe He didn't make a mistake in making me a woman, and all that comes with woman-hood.  As my heart dreams and desires that stem from being a woman, I know that He planted those in me.  He has dreams for me too, a purpose beyond what I can even imagine.  And those amazing, purposefully plans are based on the sole fact that I am a woman.  

And when He created me, us, as woman, He didn't create us to navigate all our thoughts and feelings, and once a month need to consume mass amounts of chocolate by ourselves. He gave us Him, He gave us His son, He gave us the Holy Spirit.  For each step, each thought, each tear, each laugh, each heartache, each bad hair day and good one...we are never alone. He wis always with us, loving us through it, providing our needs for the moment, guiding our each and every step. He is refuge and safe place.  In Him we find freedom. We are free to embrace being woman, free to become ourselves....exactly who God wants us to be. 

Throughout the book, Stasi uses the stories of famous woman in history, in the bible, and even her own personal stories to talk about love, relationships, body issues and image, and so much more. Each page is full of incredible wisdom and solid, biblical truth.  You know what, just go buy the book right now and read it for yourself.  You will NOT be disappointed.  

I'll end this lengthy post the way the book ends:  Let's go together.  Let's press on to the goal that is set before us--to become fully transformed, fully alive, fully ourselves, fully His.  To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without flight and with great joy--to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forever-more!  Amen. (Jude vv 24-25)

Go, be yourself. 

-Emmy


Eldredge, S. (2013). Becoming myself: embracing God's dream of you. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.