BEAUTY NOT BEHELD
Beauty Not Beheld is a 6-week book where author Paige Stitt McBride guides readers through the lies about identity and beauty that creep into minds through our culture and the truths that will set us free.
Beauty Not Beheld: A Daily Guard Against the Lies of Self-Love Culture, by Paige Stitt McBride. This book is intended to equip believers to discern the subtle lies about identity and beauty that permeate our current cultural climate and replace them with biblical truths about who we are and who we were made to be. In an effort to speak the truth in love, Beauty Not Beheld will gently push readers to expose our culture’s distortion of the central message of the gospel in the self-love movement and instead embrace the true gospel that will set us free and lead to a thriving sense of self. Each week focuses on a different aspect of our true, biblical identity, whether that be our brokenness, our redemption, or even our physical selves.
Each week provides six studies contrasting a common sentiment in society with a biblical truth. After reading the given passage of Scripture and commentary, readers are given reflection questions to verbalize and apply what they are learning. May we all learn to truly see ourselves and the world through the eyes of God!
BEAUTY NOT BEHELD
This Devotional is for you if...
- You have found that the promises of self-love culture usually disappoint.
- You struggle to understand how the gospel could truly be a remedy for your insecurities.
- You doubt the Scriptures’ relevance to the problems you face everyday.
THE DETAILS
Beauty Not Beheld
Topic: intends to equip believers to discern the subtle lies about identity and beauty that permeate our current cultural climate and replace them with biblical truths about who we are and who we were made to be.
Length of Study: 6 weeks
Focal Scripture: multiple passages
“We have turned the gospel into a self-esteem project instead of an atonement project. And we have done this by convincing ourselves that our deepest problem as a human being is a lack of self-love, self-confidence, self-appreciation, self-care, self-this, and self-that”
- Paige Stitt McBride, author
PEEK INSIDE
The Devotional Structure
Structure: 6 week study
Elements: Each week provides six studies contrasting a common sentiment in society with a biblical truth. After reading the given passage of Scripture and commentary, readers are given reflection questions to verbalize and apply what they are learning.
beauty not beheld
From The Introduction
"The common thread is clear: Largely, culture’s response to the conundrum of poor self-image is exhorting women to forget other people’s opinions and standards and create their own. In other words, culture wants to remind women, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! So don’t let some beholders get you down, you are the true and only important beholder!” This sentiment sounds empowering at first glance, but the results don’t corroborate. Since this study in 2016, the number of voices chanting womens’ empowerment have grown, and yet so has the number of women who hate the way they look and even hate themselves. Maybe it's time women turn to the Scriptures for their answers instead of their favorite celebrities."
- Paige Stitt McBride, author
BONUS CONTENT
Study Tools
New to the Bible?
Are you new to reading the Bible? If you’re picking up this devotional yet feel unable to navigate God’s Word, our Bible Toolkit is for you! Through this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of diving into the Word of God, from choosing a Bible to navigating the pages inside to what happens after you close the cover. Let’s dive in!
meet the author
Paige Stitt McBride
Paige is a newlywed, part-time seminary student at Reformed Theological Seminary and lover of all things discipleship. She spends her days working at her local church in Sharon, Pennsylvania while teaching dance lessons. And best of all, she is expecting her first child with her husband, Brett, come January 2023! She is passionate about helping women engage thoughtfully and carefully with the Scriptures while also helping them define and embrace its teaching within our particular cultural setting. Beauty Not Beheld: A Daily Guard Against the Lies of Self-Love Culture is her first published work.
Meet the Author
Paige's Story
Growing up as a competitive dancer, I was no stranger to beautiful girls and perfect bodies, not to add the hours of staring at them next to mine in the mirror every night. Susceptible to the traps of pride, I began to buy the lie that immodesty and sexualizing myself were worth feeling empowered and noticed. After many years reflecting on some of my mistakes and victories, Beauty Not Beheld is a careful trek through the Scriptures that has allowed me to lay out more systematically the core truths that have shaped my identity and body-image and set me free from the insecurity and disappointment of the world’s remedies.
