A Life Of Lovely | A Review
I don’t know about you, but sometimes it can be hard to find beauty, hope, and a life of lovely in the crazy of our day to day. For me, it’s a whole lot easier to focus on, as my pastor says, “the nasty now and now” than it is”the sweet by and by”.
Lucky for us though, Annie Downs helps us to find beauty, hope, and a life of lovely in her latest book A Life Of Lovely.
DISCLAIMER: I received this book from B&H Publishing in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. Want to be a B&H/LifeWay blogger too? Apply at bhbloggers.com.
Find beauty. Find hope. Find your life of lovely.
Annie F. Downs wants you to take each next step of life with excitement, heading forward with beauty and confidence. But what if the enemy is whispering lies that you are not smart enough, pretty enough, or rich enough? Or that you are too loud, too quiet, too thin, too fat, too much? What if you feel like you don’t have what it takes to be who God meant for you to be?
Based on Annie’s earlier book Looking For Lovely, this new book for young women is personal yet powerful, offering honest stories, biblical truth, and courageous examples–all to encourage readers to persevere their way to hope. You will walk away excited about who you are becoming and challenged to create your own life of lovely.
I think you could probably relate when I say that it’s easy to beat yourself up. Most of the time, we women believe the lies the world and the enemy tell us that we’re broken, not good enough, unloved, the list goes on.
But what if I told you it’s completely possible to live a life of lovely amidst all the pain, sorrow, and defeat and collect the moments that truly matter?
That is exactly what Annie Downs does in her book “A Life Of Lovely“. Through lots of tears and brutal honesty, Annie dives deep into the darkest parts of her heart to take you on her journey to finding beauty, hope, and a life of lovely.
This journey is a hard one, and I think most of us would feel right at home in this book because all of us have been through this same battle but never actually talked about it.
A Life Of Lovely is a book about the ways we can find the beautiful in our every day moments–even the hard ones–and the story of God meeting us right where we are at and redeeming our brokenness into something beautiful.
Annie dives deep into the dark parts of her heart to share with us how God redeemed her broken crazy and showed her how to love herself the way God made her and be able to step into all God intended for her to be.
There were several moments where I cried as I read this book because I felt as if Annie was speaking directly to me. Especially when she was talking about addiction.
We are all addicted to something, whether we admit it or not. Annie says that “the very thing we think is freeing us is keeping us a slave. The very thing we think is relieving our pain is actually the thing making us hang on to our own suffering”. Ouch.
The truth stings, and this made me think really hard about some things. But the comforting thing about all this is that even though we stumble and fall, God is there to pick up the pieces every single time.
I couldn’t put this book down because, it was so real to me. Reading Annie’s story put a lot of things in perspective. More than that, it taught me about bravery. Specifically, bravery in my walk with Jesus. Annie says that:
“You have to be brave to to believe you are made on purpose–to go after your passions and walk in who you were made to be. When you believe God made you on purpose, you are willing to be brave because the root questions are already answered.
Am I enough? Yes, God made you on purpose.
Am I alone? No, God never leaves you. The Bible says He loves everything He makes, and He loves you unconditionally, so you are never alone.
If I mess up, if I fail, if things don’t go well, am I done?” No, you are always loved, you are never alone, you are enough. So be brave, try the thing, trust that if you are pursuing God and going after a brave life, He can fix and sweep up and help you”.
God is a God who puts everything in its right place, including our lives. Most of the time we just simply don’t realize it. Part of living a life of lovely and finding beauty in our everyday is being able to find Jesus there too.
One of my favorite quotes from the entire book was this: “When you find Jesus, you have found lovely. He is everything we need”. The key to finding lovely is finding Jesus.
This book is so jam packed with stories and truth that cut right to your heart. Annie will forever be one of my favorite authors because of her honesty and encouragement.
I highly recommend this book for any woman who wants to find a life of lovely right where she is. Annie’s honesty about her journey will encourage you and inspire you in ways you never thought possible.
The book is available for purchase through LifeWay (on sale for $5), Christian Audio, Audible, or wherever you get your books!
