511. You’re Not Enough (and That’s Ok): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love
Rating: ☆☆☆1/2
Recommended by: Nick Reader
Author: Alice Beth Stuckey
Genre: Non Fiction, Memoir, Christian, Self Improvement
228 pages, published August 11, 2020
Reading Format: Book
Summary
In You’re Not Enough, mother, Christian, and conservative thought leader Alice Beth Stuckey questions the narrative that to be happy, fulfilled and successful all you need to do is love yourself. She believes that down this path of self love lies disappointment and disillusionment. Instead, she advocates taking the focus off of yourself and putting it on others and Jesus Christ.
Quotes
“If the self is the source of our depression or despair or insecurity or fear, it can’t also be the source of our ultimate fulfillment.”
“This is an argument I made in a podcast episode titled “Three Myths Christian Women Believe”. The first myth was that you are enough. My counter was this: you’re not enough, you’ll never be enough, and that’s okay, because God is.”
“But if we were really enough as is, we wouldn’t have to try so hard to convince ourselves it’s true.”
“When we follow Christ, we are never at risk of “losing ourselves,” because our identity is eternally found in him.”
“The yoke of the god of self is difficult and its burden heavy, but God’s yoke is easy and his burden light. What a relief to know we don’t have to expend our precious energy serving ourselves. We make terrible, unworthy gods.”
“Without the Bible as our basis for justice, we get a system based on the only tool we have without a supreme moral Lawgiver: the self.”
“Because the self can’t be both the problem and the solution.”
“The self isn’t enough—period. The answer to the purposelessness and hollowness we feel is found not in us but outside of us. The solutions to our problems and pain aren’t found in self-love, but in God’s love.”
“While self-love depletes, God’s love for us doesn’t. He showed us His love by sending Jesus to die for our sins so that we could be forgiven and live forever with Him. Self-love is superficial and temporary. God’s love is profound and eternal.”
My Take
I was given You’re Not Enough by my son Nick as a birthday gift. It was my first encounter with the conservative, Christian personality Alice Beth Stuckey. I found her book to be a quick read with an important idea at its core. It reconfirmed to me how foolish it is to base your self worth on how you look, what you weigh, how much you achieve, or any other temporal basis. Worth a read.
