I love reading, coffee, and stories of God’s transformation in people’s lives and recently I had the chance to read a book by Tiffany Dawn called The Insatiable Quest for Beauty. I loved the raw honesty she brought to her book. Tiffany did a wonderful job of drawing you into her story by her personal approach of calling each chapter coffee dates. I was drawn to her personality and love of coffee and had an image in my mind through the entire book of sitting down with her in a coffee shop as if she was my best friend pouring her heart out to me; in fact, by the end of the first chapter I felt like she was my best friend. So what is an insatiable quest for beauty? As Tiffany puts it, “Insatiable is a longing that cannot and will never be completely filled.” When we are searching and longing to be filled up by a desperate unquenchable thirst for outward beauty, it will never satisfy us; the only thing that will ever satisfy us is the search and quest for God. Proverbs 31:30 puts it this way, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” I believe we all see the worth in inward beauty and as we read Proverbs 31:30 we know fearing the Lord is what we should be striving for. But if we are honest, it is a process and there is much to learn along the way. If we are looking for affirmation from the world through our beauty we will feel an empty hole in our hearts, a place that isn’t satisfied, and a place that longs for more. In our search for identity it is easy to think a relationship can fill us but, as Tiffany explains in her book, our confidence should come from the promises of who God says we are, not in having a boyfriend or being married or having people praise us for our outward beauty. Dressing up and putting on makeup isn’t what’s wrong; it is when we think our image is our identity and what defines us. I admire her creativity in her book and how at the end of each chapter she has a link to her website TheInsatiableQuestforBeauty.com, where both men and women share their own struggles and victories over body image, eating disorders, insecurities, relationships, and more. Tiffany also has a CD that she wrote to correspond to each chapter. I recommend you check out her website, CD, and book. |