Graffiti: Learning to See the Art in Ourselves

by Erin Davis

Our culture is driven by a concept of beauty that negatively impacts adolescent girls. The Scriptures are full of assurances regarding our identity in Christ, inherent worth to the Creator, and the secrets to tapping into the source of true and lasting beauty, yet girls and young women continue to struggle with their focus on outer beauty. In Learning to See the Art in Ourselves, Erin Davis applies the language of God's Word on identity, beauty, and worth to the life of a contemporary young woman. In fact, women who have never adequately dealt with this issue will find themselves reviewing their youth, and redirecting their spiritual eyes.

Genres: Christian

168 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Erin Davis is a popular speaker, author, and blogger, Erin is passionately committed to sharing God's truth with others. She is the author of several books including Graffiti: Learning to See the Art in Ourselves, True Princess: Embracing Humility in an All About Me World, Beyond Bath Time, and the One Girl Series. Erin lives on a small farm in the midwest with her husband and kids. When she's not writing, you can find her herding goats, chickens, and children.

Reviews

[Vivi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contained many great thought-provoking impulses for me. Erin Davis challenges us to think about our relation to the world's standards of beauty, our eating habits, our father and mother relationship, God's love for us and how he sees our beauty.
It helped me a lot to think about God's love for me and drew me into his arms. Erin did a wonderful job showing how the world's standards for beauty always change, but how beautiful we are and always will be in God's eyes because he created us with such care. Even the parts of our body that we don't like, he created this way deliberately.

I was a little dissapointed because of some undifferentiated or only half-explained statements. For example, Erin makes a an argument for how important it is to eat and I absolutely understand that that is the message young girls need to hear, but it is also important that we exercise self-control and in my opinion this wasn't made clear enough. There were some other points that weren't explained fully,- only briefly truncated. Like - how can we practically point to God with our outward beauty? This wasn't clarified satisfyingly. And I would have liked to read more about God's standard of beauty - how can we adorn ourselves with the imperishible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God's sight? (1.Peter 3,4)
Erin often repeats that we are precious in the eyes of God and I totally agree with this. But here again, as far as I can recall, she only once mentions that we are precious BECAUSE we are God's children. This is important: We aren't valuable because we have worth in and of usself, I believe, but BECAUSE God gives us worth through being our father and lover.

However I really enjoyed this book and learned from it and my heart was warmed by the message. Though the target group are teenage girls who struggle to accept themselves it is a very important message for even older and maybe more stable women. We all need to hear that God loves us and doesn't want us to be destroyed by impossible beauty standards the world is imposing on us. True beauty is only found when we know and act after what God says is beautiful.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this to see if it would be a good book for our AHG Unit (7th graders) to read for one of their optional requirements for a badge. I think it is a very affirming book and has a lot of good thoughts, encouragement, and Scriptures in it. It is a bit redundant at times, and I got a little bored with the repetition so I am a little afraid my teens will at well. I do like that it has the journal questions at the end of each chapter, and I think that will help my girls stay focused on the point of each chapter and will enable us to better discuss the book once they are all finished. Overall, I think this is a good book to give a young woman that might be dealing with self-esteem issues though.

[Holly Loader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a powerful message delivered in a simple and easy to read format. Though written for girls and young women, I believe the message in these pages is both powerful and relevant for women of any age. My favorite thing about Erin's book is that she doesn't weigh her pages with an endless list of "do this...don't do that." She simply writes a compelling detail of how we are already seen as beautiful to an unrelenting and ominous God! This book encourages and lifts up! It begs us to see our worth in eternal gain! This book has been a blessing and I'm preparing to recommend it to a large group of girls as we speak! Excellent! Get yourself a copy!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important topic in our perfectly artificially-enhanced image-swamped, world. What is REAL? God's love for His own is the only REAL protection against envy/comparison/discontent for all women, young or old. Important take away point: don't feed the dragon with "fashion" magazines--- but don't think the enemy won't find other ways to make you feel inadequate. His Truth will keep your heart.

[Skylar Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

My life group leader is friends with Erin and she got us all copies one night. This book is so inspiring. Erin has an amazing testimony and shares it in this book. Also she shows us how God thinks of us girls. It's amazing. Every girl, and woman should read this!

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for teens!