Beautiful Freedom
How the Bible Shapes Your View of Appearance, Food, and Fitness
Endorsements
To be a modern woman is to struggle with how we look. We’re confronted with images of beauty, ideas about what to eat, and our own internal struggles with our bodies. In Beautiful Freedom, Stacy Reaoch diagnoses and gives the solution to our ever-compounding struggles with body image. If you think you’re immune to this, Stacy shows how it impacts everyone. But even more helpfully, she points to the path towards freedom—where we see everything we have as a gift from God to be stewarded for his glory.
— Courtney Reissig
Author of Teach Me to Feel and Glory in the Ordinary
A heartening and fundamental guide for anyone battling the relentless pressures of modern beauty and health ideals. Beautiful Freedom is bursting with Bible-centered wisdom and highlights Christ’s love for us. More than insightful information, this book is a soothing balm, offering real hope and freedom that is only found in Jesus Christ. I pray that God will use this book to remind the church that true beauty and freedom are ultimately found in him and not the fleeting standards of the world.
— Portia Collins
Host, Grounded podcast
Young or old, thick or thin, mostly satisfied or perpetually frustrated by what you see when you look in the mirror: whoever you are, you need an embodied theology, a grid for thinking about your body and beauty that is more than skin-deep. In her thought-provoking book, Beautiful Freedom, Stacy Reaoch will help you see yourself through the lens of God’s unchanging word. In seeing his heart rightly, you’ll finally be able to see yourself and your body choices with hope and freedom. You’ll want to share this book with every woman you know.
— Erin Davis
Revive Our Hearts; author of Fasting and Feasting and Beyond Bath Time
I felt like Stacy was writing directly to me. I see myself in the stories she shares about herself and other women trying to balance attitudes and actions around food, exercise, and aging. Discipled by the world, I find myself falling into deep snares in each of these areas. But Stacy’s wisdom, shaped by the word of God, provides a clarion call back to what’s genuinely good, beautiful, and true. This is a book I will be sharing with my friends at the gym and at church, and my own four daughters. How I long for us all to view our bodies rightly! Beautiful Freedom will help us get there.
— Jen Oshman
Author, Enough About Me
Many today are turning new attention to our bodies and the very practical issues of exercise, aging, and what we eat and how much—but few provide deeply Christian counsel. Stacy Reaoch knows the perils of our pendulum swings between apathy and obsession, but even more, she wants to help readers to find not just ‘balance’ but deep and enduring joy in Jesus, with genuine love for others. She sees these important issues in light of our ultimate reality, which enables her to meet our pressing need for wisdom, rather than scratch the itch for quick and easy answers.
— David Mathis
Executive Editor at desiringGod.org and author of Habits of Grace
Christian women are not exempt from cultural pressures around aging, appearance, and beauty. Stacy Reaoch offers biblical wisdom, truth, and encouragement that soothes the soul of any woman who is stressed out over how she looks, how she should exercise, or what she should eat. This book offers sweet relief and poignant reminders that the most beautiful things about us are not external but eternal.
— Heather Creekmore
Host, Compared to Who? podcast
Raising A Family Far From Home
As longings for family press in, we can find measures of joy in trusting that God has us exactly where he wants us to be. We look to Christ for our satisfaction instead of to the perfect family arrangement.
When God Changes Your Plans
Parenting is a series of of sacrifices, of laying down our rights for the good of our children. My mornings of solitude are being replaced with history and Latin and math lessons. But it will be a sacrifice worth making.
The Art Of Rest
The hustle and bustle of life, raising our family, ministry and the never ending to-do list can throw me into a panic whenever a needed time of rest comes around. Do I really have time to stop?
The Battle With Being “Good Enough”
Do you ever struggle with feeling like you’re not good enough?
The Dangers Of Disobedience
Our choice to sin hurts not only us, but inevitably those who are closest to us.
Parents, Don’t Waste Your Lazy Summer Days
The pressure to keep our kids’ schedules filled to the brim can diminish the possibility of a summer respite. But is it really such a bad thing to have wide open spaces in our planners? Might this be the very thing we need in order to refocus our priorities and make the most of the short season of time we’re given with our children?
The Cure For Bitterness
The cure for bitterness is not found in getting even, but by giving grace.
How To Embrace Your Dispensability
Oftentimes, we’re tempted to think things will fall apart if we’re removed from the equation. We’re afraid to give up control and trust that someone else can finish the task just as well, if not better, than we can. Pride says, everything will fall apart if I’m not involved. Humility says, things may even start to run better without me.
Restore The Sweetness To Your Marriage
Sweetness in marriage doesn’t just happen. It takes intentionality, discipline, and patience. Here are five practical ways to pursue it together.
Your Resolutions Flew Out The Window
In the midst of faltering resolutions, refresh your heart and mind with these four truths…
Depressed And Thankful: 6 Ways To Find Joy
If you are wandering down the dark path of depression and despair, here are six ways to fight for joy through gratefulness…
If He Calls You, He Will Equip You
If you’re in a place of insecurity, wondering how to handle a challenging task, remember three things.
How A Busy Mom Finds Time To Pray
In the Christian life, prayer is essential. Prayer demonstrates our dependence on God. It reminds us that we’re not in control of our life and there is One who deserves all glory and praise. Prayer lifts our eyes off of ourselves and reminds us of our heavenly hope. So how do we as busy moms find time to pray? Where do we carve out time to spend in conversation with the Lord when there is always someone (or something) needing our attention?
Invite Someone To Sunday Lunch
The dinner table has a way of breaking down barriers between people. As we sip our coffee and eat our pie, we share about life and faith in Christ.
Will I Ever Be Good Enough
Our hope does not lie in ourselves or our performance. We cannot gain God’s blessing through obeying his commands, and we can’t do enough good deeds to earn forgiveness for even the smallest sin. As mothers, we can be tempted to find our righteousness in giving our children the picture-perfect childhood, filled with super-food meals and the best education possible. Somehow we falsely believe that if we can be the ideal Proverbs 31 wife and mother, we will earn favor with God. Yet our hope is solely in what Christ has already done, what he accomplished for us on the cross.
God Loves Ministry No One Else Sees
God rejoices in sea creatures and rare flowers that no one but him will ever see. He delights even more in children who serve him gladly in unseen ways.
Reasons To Remember
As we remember how God led, provided, and protected in the past, we can trust He will be faithful for tomorrow…
