Book Review: So Long Insecurity

I know that I get excited a lot when I read a good book or go through a great study of some sort, but this book was truly life-changing for me.  I would love nothing more than for every woman reading this to pause, order the book, and then continue reading.  Go.

Whenever I read Beth Moore's books or do her studies, I learn so much.  She has a way of making the Bible (even the Old Testament) applicable to women of all circumstances today.  She's lived through some unimaginable events in her life.  She's honest.  She's practical.  And she's real.  I love me some Beth Moore.

Now on to the book.

source

The Girls' Fellowship Group that I attend just finished a chapter-by-chapter study of this book.  I'm not sure if any of us that actually read the book weren't changed by its message.  The first half of the book talks about why insecurity is so detrimental.  Everyone has them, and they completely shape our lives, often without us even knowing it. 

Beth offers numerous factors that can be the root(s) of our insecurities.  Some of them were obvious, but many of them were things I never would have thought about.  Also, she talks about how to identify insecurities in others.  How terrible does that sound, ha?!  Of course, it is for the sole purpose of helping those people, especially when they are people that take their insecurities out on you.  (I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about!)

If you read the first half of the book though, make sure to read the last half!  Otherwise, you will just be left hanging and feeling really vulnerable and insecure :)

The second half of the book offers practical and Biblical advice for overcoming your insecurities so that you can become the woman God desires for you to be.  I must say that I was a bit hesitant to know if Beth could really teach me how to work through my vulnerabilities in just a few chapters.  She completely let God do the work, however, by pointing out scripture after scripture that challenged my beliefs in regards to how much I trust Him. 

Maybe one of these many thoughts below will touch your heart and make you want to read the book.  Here are some of my favorite quotes:

• "Heaven knows how many people never fulfill their destinies simply because of their own insecurities." pg. 52
• "I not only lack security, I lack faith.  I don't just doubt myself, I doubt God about myself." pg. 18
• "We use guys like mirrors to see if we're valuable.  Beautiful.  Desirable." pg. 7
• "Insecurity's best cover is perfectionism." pg. 19
• "Perfectionists' black-and-white thinking takes them on a roller coaster between feeling horribly inadequate and bad about themselves, and then, when things are going well, feeling proud to be so good.  Low self-esteem and pride coexist in the same heart." pg. 106
• "Most women find a tremendous amount of security in sameness." pg. 78
• "Nothing has the propensity to reveal false gods to me like a sudden change in my circumstances." pg 171
• "Insecurity... results from the way we've coped rather than healed." pg. 85
• "We will never feel better about ourselves by becoming more consumed with ourselves.  Likewise, we will ever feel better about ourselves by feeling worse about others.  Superiority can't give birth to security." pg. 105
• "People who are chronically insecure often have an overwhelming tendency to become control freaks." pg. 209
• "We are called to cherish, support, and pray for others, but tying our security to [chronically unhappy people] is a lost cause." pg. 214
• "Insecurity will rob us of some of the richest woman-to-woman relationships of our lives.  It turns potential friends into competitors." pg. 277
• "The high-definition images surrounding us at every turn and screen look so real that we forget we're being vacuumed into a matrix.  A constant stream of media and celebrities pressures real women to either try to measure up to pretend lives or admit failure." pg. 278
• "The insecurities of women have gone viral, and as if our culture is not host enough, how we're catching it from one another.  Call me an optimist, but I have to believe that security could be just as contagious." pg. 278
• "We can stop playing the game even if no one else in our environment signs the no-compete." pg. 280
• "When we work from an activated mentality of God-given security, we are fully capable of thinking another woman is beautiful without concluding we are ugly.  We can esteem another woman's achievements without feeling like an idiot.  We can admire another woman's terrific shape without feeling like a slob.  Where on earth did we come up with the idea that we have to subtract value from ourselves in order to give credit to someone else?" pg. 280
• "I've also found it difficult to keep despising someone I consistently pray for." pg. 286
• "Only insecure people enjoy tripping another person's insecurity switch." pg. 289
• "The goal in our female relationships should be to encourage one another's security.  Not enable one another's insecurity." pg. 289
• "Try as we might, we re not likely to change our culture.  But we can let God change us, and vital change will happen within our culture." pg. 309
• "Human nature dictates that most often we will be as insecure as we are self-absorbed." pg. 309
• "Most of the enemy's power is in his bluff, but he has been around long enough to know that the constant fear of disaster can be as disabling as the disaster itself." pg. 324
• "Fear of the future makes people settle for things in the present that completely defy abundant life.  It also insults the grace of God that will be piled in heaps for us when hardship comes.  We agonize over how we'll possibly make it, yet all the while we can glance over our shoulders and see where God has carried us." pg. 332

Read enough?  I hope there's no law on how much you can quote a book, ha.  I only do it in hopes that you see how powerful and important the message of this book is.  God worked wonders in my life through So Long Insecurity.  I could see myself changing with ever chapter I read.

One of the most impressionable parts to me was when Beth suggested that security might be as contagious as insecurity.  It's not about being secure with how good we are, but being secure in how great God is.  So with that in mind, the more secure I become, the more I will radiate God's contagious light.  

Bottom line: Everyone has insecurities.  God does not create his children in His image to be insecure.  He cares for us and wants to help us.  

"The Lord is your security.  He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap."  

Proverbs 3:26, NLT