Ashley Beach-Author and Storyteller

We spend so much time trying to find our identity in whatever we can in this world. Some spend their time and energy seeking the attention or approval of those around us and do whatever it takes to gain the accolades and praise of others. Some seek the love of anything and anyone who will give it and give into tempting situations that offer us false love and acceptance because we are so desperate to receive that much longed for attention. We sacrifice any morals or ideas of what’s right or wrong because we want the love that we are missing from our lives and so lines are blurred and decisions are made that deep down we know are wrong, but our longing out ways our resolve and our weaknesses take over.

One of the characters in my book, Beauty Reborn, finds his identity by constantly seeking the approval of his father. It is incredible how influential our parents are in our lives. Much of our identity can be found in what our parents did or didn’t do while we were growing up. If a parent leaves, the child views the abandonment as something they caused and constantly wonder what they could have done to make their parent stay. If a parent is there but forever focused on their work, the child does what they can to get their parent’s attention. Sometimes those actions are played out by pushing oneself to be the best athlete or best scholar or best whatever it is because they think that once they achieve something worth while, they will finally be noticed and praised by their parent. If that doesn’t work, the child sometimes acts out and starts creating trouble and chaotic situations just to get their parent’s attention for a few moments. How parents treat others influences how their children will in turn treat and view others. It is a big responsibility to bring another life into this world and it is one that is so often mishandled or taken lightly, leaving the child feeling unloved or abandoned or constantly seeking approval and acceptance from wherever they can get it.

As I mentioned, one of the characters in my book, Beauty Reborn, was raised by a cold and disapproving father. In fact, this father raised two sons and treated both very differently, but both were left wanting more and lived their life in constant battle for their father’s love. For Aiden, he just constantly felt insignificant and weak and like he would never achieve much of anything. For Erick, he spent his life fighting for his father’s approval and carrying a grudge against his half-brother who had always been destined to be king. He saw how ruthlessly his father took over the throne in the Fallen realm and adopted the persona of being cruel and heartless as well, believing that was the only way anyone could get anywhere in life. It became his life’s mission to do whatever it took to gain his father’s approval and acceptance, and he carried out that mission without care of what his actions did to other people.

People like Erick who live their lives with ruthless abandon and have no sympathy or compassion for others or views life as important or sacred can be viewed as someone who does not deserve a second chance. Whatever happens to them, they probably deserved it and the world would be a better place without them terrorizing and bullying others. Erick’s only care in the world is to do whatever will get his father’s praise and if that means selling his half-brother into an arranged marriage or stealing a powerful gem or selling out his family or taking something so precious to someone that it can’t be replaced, he’ll do it. Ironically, there are times throughout the story you see Erick respond in fear and self-defense against his heartless father, the very man he is seeking approval from. If the thing you are seeking approval from strikes fear into your heart because of how heartless and cruel it is, you are not seeking your love and attention from the right source.

I finished watching Disney’s Descendants movie this last week because their fourth movie in the series just came out and I like to go back and watch through the previous movies as a refresher/preparation for the new movie. If you don’t know the story, the Beast from Beauty and the Beast united all the fairy tale lands and banished all of the villains to a place called Isle of the Lost. When the story begins, the Beast’s son is being crowned king and his first declaration is to bring a few kids of the villains to their land to give them a chance to have a better life and make better choices than their parents made. He believes everyone has the choice to be good or evil and the kids should not be punished for their parents’ crimes just because their parents are evil villains. The four chosen villain kids come to this new land full of light and magic and are on a mission to find the fairy godmother’s wand so their parents can take over the world. Throughout the story, the villain kids learn what it means to be loved and have friends and be accepted because of their merits and character and not just on how evil they can be. They start to change and no longer want to be bad, but people’s hatred and condescension of them pushed them to go after the wand, regardless of their attempts to be good. In the end, they decide they want to be good, but one of them asks if they’re sure they want to make this decision because the fear of what their parents would do to them if they made this decision is still utmost in his mind. Prince Ben, the one being crowned king, tells him that their parents can’t reach them there. For the first time in their lives, they’re safe and able to make the choices they want to make and not worry about the repercussions they would face for not doing what their parents expect them to do.

Erick undergoes a similar transformation in both Beauty Reborn and Beauty Revealed. There is a moment towards the end of Beauty Reborn where Erick nearly loses his life. He had every right to die and some might even say he deserved to die a horrible death for all of the evil things he carried out for his father. But, a blind princess took pity on him and showed him compassion when none was deserved. Even after he took something extremely precious from her, she felt nothing but mercy for him and felt he deserved a second chance. She helped heal Erick and saved him from his deserved fate of death, and that act of love and mercy transformed Erick’s life beyond anything he would have ever imagined in his life. He realized, with the help of another person who should have been perfectly fine with Erick dying a horrible death for all the things Erick had done to him growing up, that he didn’t have to live his life the way their father had. He had the chance and ability to choose to live a better life. His father couldn’t reach him where he was and he was able to make the decision to live his life for good instead of evil.

In my fourth book, Beauty Revealed, we find out that Erick received a lot of backlash from his father for choosing a different life. In fact, his father was so enraged, he didn’t even see Erick as his son anymore, just a traitorous wretch who deserved the ultimate punishment for betraying him. Becoming a believer can be difficult. My grandma’s dad was a Jehovah’s witness and when my grandma became a believer, he kicked her out and they never had a close relationship again. People have been excommunicated from their families, their homes, their countries, never to see those faces or places again because they chose a life of following Christ over their traditions or what was expected of them. So many who have chosen to follow Christ have experienced horrendous deaths simply because they declared Christ to be God and ruler in their lives. Every one of Christ’s closest disciples were tortured and experienced horrific deaths, all because they followed Christ and refused to bow to the self-declared rulers of this world. Even Paul, one of Christ’s most devoted followers later in his life and author of a majority of the New Testament, persecuted Christ-followers before his life was completely transformed on the road to Damascus.

Why would people be willing to die for such a man? They wouldn’t die for him just because he was a prophetic teacher. They might be grateful he healed them, but they probably wouldn’t be willing to die a horrific death for their healer. What kind of person goes from killing a religious group of people to suddenly becoming one of the greatest advocates and preacher’s of that same religion?

Jesus is the only thing that could transform a person like that. Jesus, who was God Himself, came down to earth as a man and did more than teach and heal. He gave His life in our place and rose from the grave, overcoming death and giving us an undeserved second chance in life.

Erick’s life was completely transformed because someone gave him a second chance. He no longer wanted to live the life he had been living. He wanted to live a life worthy of the second chance he had been given. And nothing his father did to him made him want to change back.

When we accept Christ into our hearts as our Lord and Savior, our lives undergo that same transforming power. It is something that is hard to explain to those who have never experienced this power. But, those who have experienced it can testify that their lives are never the same again. An internal knowing that their sins have been redeemed by the sacrificial blood of Christ’s death on the cross fills them. Drug addicts are completely changed and are a night and day difference between who they were and who they are. Alcoholics quit and never touch another drop again. People who have chosen certain lifestyles or lived certain ways are so different, you can’t help but ask what happened to them. When you ask them what changed them, they’ll respond with one simple name–Jesus.

Becoming a believer/follower of Christ is more than just receiving a new identity, removing the old life you used to live and living in a brand new life and as a brand new person. It’s a total transformation because someone loved them enough to die for them and give them a second chance in life. When Christ died on the cross, He gave us that undeserved second chance, and as Erick explains to Christiana at the end of Beauty Revealed, it’s our choice to live a life worthy of that second chance. Making different choices. No longer doing the things you used to, not just because they know they can’t or shouldn’t do them anymore, but because those things no longer hold any interest for them anymore. Surrendering your life to God does not mean you are giving up your life. You are giving up your old life, but the life you get in return far outshines the life you were living before and you feel like you are gaining far more than you may have “lost”.

People who have been transformed and redeemed by the gracious love of God can’t help but tell others about it because it has so completely changed their lives. They aren’t trying to slam a religion down your throat or add another person to their team. If they’ve been genuinely changed by God, they’ll do it because they love you so much that they want you to experience the same new life and new birth that they themselves have experienced. They want you to experience the love and forgiveness they themselves have felt. People who have given their lives to Christ are, and should be, different from the world. They stand out from the rest of the world because they have been saved by something greater than any other god or religion on this earth.

The premise of my third book, Beauty Reborn, is exactly that—rebirth. There is only one Person who can offer total rebirth, and I hope you find that reason for a hope and a future. God’s love will completely transform you, just as the Mage’s Son does in my Solstice Chronicles. You can’t deny the change that takes place in people’s lives when they’ve had an encounter with the Almighty Father in Heaven.

May you find rebirth and new life in your story.