Customer Reviews

Biblical Womanhood in the Home (Foundations for the Family Series)

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This book addresses so many facets of christian womanhood, without promoting a certain legalistic spiritual "dress code". That is, rather than saying, "A truly christian woman will homeschool and bake bread and this and that", it addresses the heart issues that should drive the choices we make and the actions we take. Homeschooling and allowing God to plan your family are mentioned, for example, but not as the ultimate goal. For our family, these two items have been the results of our desire to do the Lord's will, and offer ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). As a homeschooling mother of 11 blessings, I hope that my life as a whole just demonstrates the faithfulness of God, rather than the false idea that I am determined to have as many kids as I possibly can.

Another thing I think is so neat is that it includes single women. This is a book I can recommend to single ladies of any age. God does not want us to move in cliques, and I am always on the lookout for godly encouragement for unmarried ladies that I know. Biblical womanhood is obviously not just for married women. It is simply following Jesus, according to the "job description" we are given in the Bible

For those of us with daughters, this book could outline areas that we want to address with them. Moms may want to set aside some special time with an older daughter to read it aloud together.

The last part of the book is simply a list of precious Bible verses upon which we can meditate. I found that part, of course, especially powerful and encouraging!

What an inspiring collection of commentaries of powerful Christian women. I truly enjoyed and was inspired by different authors. It is an excellent description of how I have felt as a Christian woman who felt at odds with the dangerous sound of the word "submission". Chapter one is not a resonating read like the rest of the book. My sister read it and almost decided to quit. But I implore you to read the rest!!! Skip the first chapter if you have to. It isn't an unsound commentary, just a lot less warm and fuzzy, not as well written, and the content is simply a little dryer than the remainder of the book. As I told my sister, take heart, there are many different authors in this book, if you don't enjoy the first one, there may be one you completely love in another chapter.

I find it a joy to be a wife and mother. I'm relieved to reconcile respect and submission. One of the authors notes that the Holy Spirit was sent as a "helper"! That is the original purpose of woman according to Genesis: to be a helper. So it isn't the lowly restricting position assumed by our secular world.

There are beautiful parable type illustrations in a few of the chapters. I especially loved the chapter by P. Bunny Wilson.
In the chapter "Portrait of a Woman Used By God", DeMoss explores some of the characteristics that made Mary of Nazereth a woman beloved of God. Noting that in a prayer recorded in Luke 1:46-55 Mary makes over twelve old testament scriptural references. Mary was a woman who knew God before she was chosen to bear His Son.

I felt both conviction and encouragement reading this book! I truly recommend it to any Christian woman search for how to reconcile her Christian walk with her existance in today's world.

The writings collected in this book offer us an opportunity to join with God in transforming our lives to bring honor to His Name. They are presented gently and in a straight-forward manner that challenges us to choose to believe God.

With a list of authors like this, you know you're in for something good!

The thing that I appreciated most was the range of women this book was speaking to: teenage girls, mothers with daughters, mothers with any children, married women, single women, widows, elderly women encouraged to be Titus 2 women--basically, if you are female and love the Lord, there is some instruction waiting for you in this book.

This book is one of the most influential books I have ever read in my life. It changed my life the first time I read it. I now give it to young woman I know when they get engaged to gain a godly perspective on her role as a wife. We were created to be our husbands helpmates (Genesis 2:18). Very different than the world's perspecitve on being a wife. You will be blessed and changed forever when you read this book!!

I absolutely love this book! I won't write a novel on it because I'd just as soon you read it yourself. Any woman looking for a little direction on her role as a Christian and a woman, this is it for sure.
Phenomenal read! I think it is now my favorite book! :)

Wow, rarely do you see a book filled with such a variety of Christian authors. I wasn't sure what to expect, since I already knew from experience that a few of these authors were too conservative for me and I'd only heard of others. Initially, I feared this book might be another Mary Pride specimen: too old-fashioned to be taken seriously and constantly chiding women, none too gently, that our only place is home. Upon closer inspection, though, I was proved most happily wrong.

I'll admit I was turned off by the first chapter. Carolyn Mahaney was doing a lovely job of explaining beautiful womanhood, until she actually told women to submit to the males in their lives. I'm not just referring to fathers, bosses, or even husbands here; Mahaney honestly thinks that anything with testasterone should be given headship. Here are her exact words confirming this: "We are inclined to affirm the leadership and initiative of the men around us. In all our relationships, we should be making room for Godly men to practice servant leadership".

Now, seriously; I thought everyone knew better than this nonsense by now. No complimentarian I know of still preaches that women must submit to men as a WHOLE. Hello, newsflash, the Bible never says this! What it does say is that girls are to have obedience for their fathers (when they're children, just as boys do) and submission to their husbands. This "submit to all men" crock is just ridiculous and extremely outdated. Seriously people, with the Biblical scholarship we have now, there is no excuse for this ridiculous belief and even the most conservative of Christians usually know better. It's a good thing the whole book wasn't devoted to this idea, or it would have gotten a flat out one-star rating from me.

Luckily, it got better. I still had my guard up when I came across the chapter about appreciating God as "Father", but it was blessedly not the masculinity overload I feared. The author did a great job of explaining how, even though God has no gender, we still must appreciate Him as the Holy parent that He is. God doesn't need to be male for us to address Him as Father; we do this because this is what He instructs. Addressing God as He wishes us to address Him is the first action of respect and acknowledgement as a Christian.

My favorite chapter of the book by far was Bunny Wilson's excellent "Liberated through Submission." Up until now, I'd only heard of Mrs. Wilson's work and was very glad to see such a healthy and wonderful explanation of submission by a Godly woman. There were two main things about her section that hooked me completely: for starters, Wilson shared a startling story about the time she terribly distorted marital submission and basically became a puppet to her husband, smiling without pause and doing whatever he asked. It wasn't until her little girl told her she didn't want to marry because she didn't want to obey a man like her mommy did that Wilson realized the error of her practice. (From the mouths of babes, huh?) What a remarkable thing! Wilson went on to explain what submission really is, how both husbands and wives are called to do it, and how the world would fall apart without it. Everyone, Wilson explains, is submitted in some way to some sort of order. Submission doesn't mean being a submissive person in general, it means respecting order so we can maintain harmony and organization.

The second thing that really struck me about Bunny Wilson's section was her address and even rebuttal of Laura Doyle's popular book, "The Surrendered Wife." I'd never before heard any Christian writer address Doyle's book and I was very curious to hear Wilson's thoughts on it. The ironic thing about "Surrendered" (as Wilson pointed out and as I noticed myself beforehand) is that, while some women flock to it because it avoids the word "submission", it actually offers a far more stifling practice than the kind of submission that the Bible truly exhorts. Wilson said that Laura Doyle even personally told her that she does not believe in submitting because it places the woman in an inferior position to her husband (what does she think her book tells women to do, then?) Wilson pointed out that not only did Doyle get the meaning of submission wrong, but even misunderstood her own choice of words: the word "surrender" is a military term and means giving in and giving up completely. Submission, on the other hand, has another meaning entirely and is appliable to everyone without being restrictive or even always authoritave. When we either misuse the practice of submission or try to avoid it and instead substitute something more extreme (as Doyle did), we end up just complicating matters. I won't go into any more details, but suffice it to say that Wilson's chapter was excellent and thought-provoking. I'd go so far as to say that it's essential reading for any Christian.

Altogether, this book is really a good tool for women. Sure, some of the definitions of femininity are too confining and simplistic, but that's the beauty of having several authors: you get a variety of perspectives. If nothing else, the book can give some insight into each of these writers' viewpoints and help you get an idea of whose works you'd like to explore in the future.