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
When You Don’t Know What to Do
Lately it seems like there are multiple situations that I’m unsure which way to go.
What Is “The Abundant Life?”
The trials of this life wean us from the world and teach us that our only true satisfaction will be found in God.
Vacations Don’t Last Forever
Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t allow our mountaintop experiences to last?
When It’s Hard To Forgive
Have you been hurt or mistreated by someone? In our fallen world, relationships with others can be hard. Strong words are spoken, jealousy creates division, even our closest family relationships can be wrought with pain.
Loving Your Neighbor Amid Crisis
A pandemic can breed selfishness in all of us. We run to the store to stock up on essentials: toilet paper, bread, meat, milk. We go to great measures to protect and provide for our loved ones. But how much of this falls into the realm of survival of the fittest? Are we only thinking of ourselves or do we consider the needs of others? I’ve struggled with the balance between protection and sacrifice.
In Praise Of Unfussy Hospitality
Unfussy hospitality focuses on people, not preparations, on loving others well instead of worrying what others think of us.
The First Empty Nest
Parenting is a series of letting go, a series of trusting God with the children he has given us.
Let Not Food Destroy The Body
Food is a good gift from God, as long as we are not consumed with our diet and menu plans.
5 Ways To Point Our Doubting Loved Ones To Jesus
Our churches and homes need to be a safe place for believers and non-believers alike to express their uncertainties and doubts. We create a culture of grace when we welcome these questions instead of run from them and display the same mercy our Father has shown to us (Luke 6:36).
Review Of The Long Goodbye - The Kara Tippetts Story
Watching this documentary was good for my soul. It helped me try to put myself in Kara’s shoes. How would I spend the last two years of my life on earth if I knew the end was near? Why am I acting like I have an infinite amount of time when I don’t know what the future holds? Sometimes we need to be reminded of our mortality.
The Joy Of An Unhurried Life
A week away without the demands of life causes me to reevaluate my priorities. It makes me see the need for rest, the need to quit scrolling and have my full attention on the precious people God has given me to do life with.
Tuning Into Titus 2 Through The Airwaves
Sometimes God provides friendship and mentors through the most unexpected ways.
Exercise For More Of God
As Christians, our motivation to steward our bodies well should run far deeper than wearing a smaller dress size.
Insomnia - His Strength In My Weakness
My constant prayer to sleep through the night causes me to lean into the promises of God like nothing else. In the midst of my bleary eyes and lagging body, I’m pushed to rely on the Lord for strength.
In Humility, Count Other Ministries More Important Than Your Own
When it comes to ministries we love, it’s easy to have tunnel vision. How do we free others from our expectations in ministry and celebrate the diversity of gifts within the church?
Through The Eyes Of Gratitude
Gratitude changes the lens with which we view life. Our joy is made full in trusting that every detail of our lives has been filtered through God’s loving hand.
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.
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.