Book Review: You’re Already Amazing

It arrived in my mailbox three weeks ago, this book. I’d signed up to review it, and it came right on time.

You’re Already Amazing: Embracing Who You Are, Becoming All God Created You to Be, by Holley Gerth. “Wow!” I thought, “pretty big promise for 193 pages.” I mean, really, anyone who reads this is to believe that she is already amazing by the end of the book? Really? Already amazing?

I finally sat down with the book a few days later, ready to conquer the read. But the conquer turned into a deep conversation with God about how He had made me, what He has made me to do and how very pleased He is with me. Yes, even me!

From Chapter One, I felt like Holley invited me into her life for the express purpose of truly encouraging me. You know, the kind that doesn’t just make you feel good about yourself, but the kind that emboldens and empowers you to do something. Yeah, I can honestly say that God has used Holley Gerth’s true encouragement to embolden me to be who God made me and to enjoy it, too. To embrace it. To trust that He is using me, even in the right now, even in the I-haven’t-showered-and-my-kids-are-driving-me-nuts-and-I-have-no-idea-what-I’m-gonna’-make-for-dinner days. God used Holley’s words to show me the places that Jesus shines through me, even when I feel like the only shine I project is the sweaty forehead kind.

A book and a workbook sort of all wrapped up in one, You’re Already Amazing walks the reader through different sorts of self-discovery. Remember those Seventeen Magazine quizzes we used to take to find out important things about ourselves like how our sock color predicted who we were going to marry? Man, I used to love those things! Didn’t you? Well, Holley has sprinkled little self-discovery quizzes (she calls them tools) throughout the book that help us figure out some things that are actually important. Like how we approach emotions, where God has us right now and what He might be doing in the midst of it, how we relate socially, and what kinds of things emotionally energize / spend us. The thing about these quizzes is not necessarily the scoring (remember skewing the answers according to the “what it means” part just so it would say you were going to marry the hot football star?). Rather, the tools throughout the book help us see more clearly through God’s eyes so that we might realize the specific purpose for which God has created us. So we can be more intentional “about how God wants (us) to express love through (our) live(s).” (p 134)

And in the discovery, I found God repeating over and over and over again the truth that He made me for a specific purpose. Nobody else in all of life is exactly like me. So I can quit chasing my dreams in relation to others’ successes. I can stop wondering if I’m going to make a difference in the world, because I have been made into a new creation and I have Jesus Christ, God Himself, living in me making everything I do shine for Him. He is using me to make Himself famous in a completely different way than He is using anyone else.

And that sentence, my friend, sums up You’re Already Amazing. Because Creator God makes us new through Jesus Christ, we are FREE to live. Really and truly live. Just as He made us to live.

It’s a great book for all women, I believe. Because all of us struggle with questions about what God wants us to do. Each of us wonders at some point or another why He has us where He does and exactly how it lines up with His plan. And so, I highly recommend You’re Already Amazing. Holley’s writing style draws the reader in from Chapter One and all the way through. The truth she writes challenges in easy but bold ways so that we find ourselves wanting more truth, more tools to help us know how God is using us in His plan.

And now if you’ll excuse me, I have some Seventeen Magazines to catch up on…

p.s. You can find Holley Gerth’s sweet, easy to read and at the same time very true words regularly here and here. And the book is on sale here right now for $9 (in case you haven’t yet clicked the link at the top).