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More Than Pretty: Doing the Soul Work that Uncovers Your True Beauty - Hardcover

Campbell, Erica

 
9781501188664: More Than Pretty: Doing the Soul Work that Uncovers Your True Beauty
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1501188666 ISBN 13: 9781501188664
Verlag: Howard Books, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

Grammy Award–winning gospel singer, television star, and radio host Erica Campbell speaks to women of all shapes and sizes, demonstrating that true beauty is found not in external appearances, but in celebrating the person God made you to be.

So many young women struggle with issues of low self-esteem, depression, self-degradation, and other unhealthy habits that manifest on the outside what’s happening on the inside. And the rise of social media and the emphasis on beauty as validation for self-worth have only added fuel to the fire. But Erica Campbell—Grammy-winning gospel star, reality TV star, and nationally-syndicated radio host—believes that we need to redefine beauty. We need to start to see ourselves the way God sees us—beautiful and perfectly made. True beauty, Erica believes, is about embracing who God made you to be.

In More Than Pretty, she turns the mirror around, reflecting God’s Word, His affirmations, and His design for every woman. This book explores issues of self-esteem, identity, and God’s design for love and intimacy. She is candid about her own struggles, sharing honestly about her battle to feel “good enough” in an industry that fixates on outward appearances.

Covering topics such as being honest about who we truly are, reflecting on what we have internalized about our appearances, uncovering and exposing the plan of the Enemy, and accepting God’s will for your life, Erica offers thoughtful, hard-won wisdom and encouragement to women from all walks of life, helping build confidence in and through the power of God.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Erica Campbell is a multiplatinum gospel singer (both on her own and as part of the duo Mary Mary, with her sister Tina). Her album Help won a 2015 Grammy Award for Best Gospel Album, as well as eight Stellar Awards. She is also the host of the nationally syndicated daily radio show Get Up! Mornings with Erica Campbell, which plays in forty markets around the country, and is a  judge on BET’s Sunday Best. Campbell is married to Grammy Award–winning producer and pastor of California Worship Center, Warryn Campbell II. They have three children—Krista, Warryn III, and Zaya.

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                                                                                                             I’m sitting in the car, waiting to pick up my kids and trying to get a decent selfie for Instagram. So far I’ve taken at least thirty-seven pictures, and none of them are right. My nose is at the wrong angle in that one. There’s a big vein down the center of my head over there. My smile looks stale. Are those wrinkles on my neck? My wig looks too wiggy.
 Delete. Delete. Delete.
 I take one more. Use a different filter. Okay, that’s cute. I can post it.
 When we get home, before I even start dinner, I check my page to see how people are responding to the new picture.
 “Too cute!”
“lol”
“Looking good!”
 And then there it is:
 “You’re so pretty.”
 That word has followed me my whole life.
 When I was a little girl, people in our church would say “what a pretty voice” when I got on stage to sing. I was a quiet, shy kid in the middle of a big, noisy family of seven sisters, one brother, and two cousins who lived with us because my mom and dad had big hearts. Finding my place was always a challenge, and at home, I spent a lot of time trying to blend in. In church, though, I stood out. I thrived on the love and attention I got when I sang for Jesus. I liked being the girl with the pretty voice, and how people all said I was special.
At the same time, I didn’t like being stuck inside for choir rehearsals, especially on sunny Saturday afternoons. And as I got older, I wanted people to see me as a whole person, more than just a voice. I wanted to feel like my pastor and my church family cared about me. There were times I would walk up to the pulpit to sing and God would bless people through my song, but I’d feel miserable. I would be broken but nobody noticed, and that hurt most of all.
By then, it was more than my voice that was called pretty. My mom and my Aunt Theresa, the first lady of our church, were always reminding me to “look pretty.” Don’t leave the house without earrings and lip gloss. Don’t wear those raggedy clothes in public. You don’t want people to think you’re a “bad” girl.
When I was a young adult, single and touring the country as a backup singer for a well-known R&B star, I had a crush on two particular R&B singers who were in the show. In one city, we all happened to be staying in the same hotel, and one night I encountered them in the elevator. As soon as the doors slid closed, we all started laughing and talking, and then they started telling each other how pretty they thought I was. They were using “pretty” to get my attention so they could just casually ask me to “stop by” their rooms.
(By the way, I didn’t take them up on their offers. I knew right away that their sweet words were a trap, trying to lure me away from God’s plan for my life. Those guys may have said I was pretty, but what they were asking for was a whole different kind of sexy. And no sir, I was not falling for it!)
I went on to sing with my sister Tina as the duo Mary Mary. We won a shelf full of big awards, hit the Billboard charts, and toured the world. We starred in our own reality TV show for six seasons. Then, after almost twenty years of doing music together, Tina and I decided to take some time apart. I’ll tell you more about that later. After a lot of work and a lot of prayer, I released my first solo song, which I called “A Little More Jesus.” It was a big step for me, and I was proud of the music. As soon as it was out, I went to iTunes to check the reviews. The first one I saw said, “No, honey, you don’t need a little more Jesus; you need a little more Tina. What are you doing by yourself? You’re the pretty one, but she’s the singer.”
Okay, that stung really bad. Yes, there have been some doors that opened in part because of how I look, but the reason I stay and the reason my songs continue to reach so many people around the world is because I go above and beyond. I can sing. I’ve spent years practicing and developing my talent, and I work hard. That song that the reviewer dissed went on to be nominated for a Grammy Award, and it wasn’t because of the way I looked.
So yeah, you can say that my relationship with the word “pretty” has been complicated. As a public figure, I’m constantly being judged by how I look and how I act. Being pretty, in some ways, is a job requirement. Yet over the years the pressure of “pretty” has sometimes been a box that felt too tight around me, limiting how I saw myself, how other people still see me, and the places where I could grow. Sometimes it was used to try to manipulate me, bait masked as a compliment.
As I travel the world and talk to women of all ages and backgrounds, I’ve discovered I’m not alone in this. The pressure to be pretty affects all of us, regardless of our race, our age, our faith, or our family. I’ve never met a woman who doesn’t have her own series of stories about how her desire to be pretty, and the efforts that she’s put into it, has marked her life.
So let me say right up front, before we go further: there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be pretty. God created us with natural, human desires to be accepted, loved, and appreciated, and the world has always told women that being pretty is the way to get there.
It starts early. If you grew up with a loving or supportive family around you, I bet that when you were a baby, people were happy to see you. Your family smiled when you came toddling into the room, and every time your parents took you out to the store or to church, someone said, “oh, what a pretty girl.” You heard those words before you even remember them, and the message came through loud and clear: people like you and pay attention to you if you’re pretty.
Of course, not everyone grew up with that kind of attention. Maybe your family was too caught up in their own issues to fill you with praise, or even to notice you. But there were plenty of other places where society’s priorities showed up. You watched movies and noticed that the pretty girls were always rescued from their troubles by handsome princes, but the not-so-pretty sisters went home defeated and alone. At school, you saw how the pretty girls were treated. Teachers paid more attention. Cute guys asked them out. They seemed so happy. And you started to believe that pretty people had easier, better, happier lives.
And of course, how could you miss the whole industry ready and waiting to sell you ways to be prettier?
Centuries before we were using the filters on our phones to make our eyes bigger and our skin clearer, women were buying dyes and powders to smooth their skin and bring color to their lips. Today, your mailbox and your inbox are full of promises to look better, be better, live healthier, and have better sex and better social lives. I’ve read that Americans spend a staggering 84 billion dollars every year on the creams and dyes and lotions that promise to shrink this and pump up that and cover up something over there, and the average woman in America will spend more than $225,000 on her appearance over the course of her lifetime.
And when it comes to women’s efforts to look good on the outside, I’m right there with my credit card in...

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Verlag
Howard Books
Erscheinungsdatum
2019
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1501188666
ISBN 13 
9781501188664
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
240
Kontakt zum Hersteller
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Verantwortliche Person
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