A Biography or something for my girlfriend to read.

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SoldierOfTheRock

Puritan Board Freshman
Howdy all,

I was wondering if anyone here knew of a good book for my girlfriend to read. I have been reading things like "Thoughts on Family Worship" by J. W. Alexander and have been browsing Thomas Watson's "The Godly Man's Picture" and telling her about them. She really wishes she had something along those same lines to read.

So, while I have some solid books to read and places to ask questions she does not. Her church at home is not really that great, and we are going to go looking for a solid church near college once the new semester begins, but until then she is really wanting something to look to for encouragement or some idea of what she can do. We do not have any real solid examples to follow or to ask questions of. I know that I can come here and ask questions, and my pastor has invited us over for dinner, which I hope turns into a regular thing.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, and if you know of an amazing book that I should read as well go ahead and throw that in! :) We still have about 2.5 years before we graduate but we both see this as a great time to learn and fix problems before we are married.

Thanks to you all in advance,
Joshua
 
I have a few suggestions:

* Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss (available through Solid Ground Christian Books)

* A Woman's Mission by John Angell James (available through Solid Ground Christian Books)

* Female Piety by John Angell James (available through Soli Deo Gloria Publications)

* Mothers of the Wise and Good by Jabez Burns (available through Solid Ground Christian Books)

* Jonathan and Sarah: An Uncommon Union by Edna Gerstner (available through Grace and Truth Books)

* Luther and His Katie: The Influence of Luther's Wife on his Ministry by Dolina MacCuish (available through Grace and Truth Books)

* Mary Bunyan: Blind Daughter of John Bunyan by Sallie Rochester Ford (available through Grace and Truth Books)

* Nine Day Queen of England: Lady Jane Grey by Faith Cook (available through Grace and Truth Books)

* Domestical Duties by William Gouge

* Letters on Practical Subjects to a Daughter by William B. Sprague (published by Sprinkle Publications)

* Ladies of the Reformation by J.H. Alexander

* Scottish Heroines of the Faith by D. Beaton

* Katharina Von Bora: A Reformation Life by Rudolf K. and Marilynn M. Markwald

* Idelette by Edna Gerstner

* A Mother´s Heart: A Look at Values, Vision, and Character for the Christian Mother by Jean Fleming (available through Reformation Heritage Books)

* Monica, the mother of St. Augustine by Rebecca H Shively

* The Two Margarets by C. MacKenzie (published by Christian Focus Publications)

* The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer

* A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elisabeth Elliot

[Edited on 12-26-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]
 
Andrew's list, as usual, is both excellent and comprehensive. I have found that most modern works on the domestic aspects of the Christian life tend to still carry some influence of feminism, i.e. they tend to teach men how to be effiminate and inculcate the "nice guy syndrome". At the same time, however, some of the older works can be difficult for a young woman to read, so you might want to start with something more modern at first. With that in mind, I would highly recommend that both of you read Douglas Wilson's Reforming Marriage. It is the only modern work I know that is hard hitting enough and gets the "big picture" in place, rather than other books that are merely "how to" manuals, and tend to leave a bit of a fog. Afterwards, it might be good for you to read Wilson's companion volume, Federal Husband. I always strongly recommend these to all of the young Christian men I know who are considering marriage. His wife, Nancy Wilson, has also written a few books, and The Fruit of Her Hands is a good one. My wife found it to be quite helpful.

On the other side of things, I have also had my wife on a steady diet of theological reading, starting of course with the easier, modern writers and moving towards the more classical works. The best place to start a young woman in theological reading would be Sproul's Holiness of God, which again is a "big picture" book that would leave her with an impression of how seriously the Christian life, and in particular, theological study, ought to be taken. After that, then other books by R.C. Sproul and James White (Forgotten Trinity, Scripture Alone, etc.) would be helpful. With a few of those under her belt, then you could move her on to some of the classical works, like some of the Puritan Paperbacks series. My wife has read one or two of those, and she just started the abridged version of Calvin's Institutes. FYI, she is 26, and we've been married for just over three years now.
 
Wow Andrew, that list is huge.

Of course I can not afford all those, but there is a library at Cedarville University that can probably get them.

With a list that long I am glad Fred and others gave a few comments as to where we should start. I think I will try to find "Reforming Marriage" and perhaps look into the books Fred said would be a good place to start.

Thanks alot guys, (kinda strange no gals posted anything...)

Joshua
 
My first and most fervent pick is:

"Putting Amazing Back Into Grace" by Michael Horton

Period.

I'm sad to report the scary lack of (in female-Christian sectors) ability to articulate the essential doctrine of Justification. Unless we get this clear and right, how else will all the other things come round right?

wringing hands

Robin :chained:
 
Originally posted by Robin
My first and most fervent pick is:

"Putting Amazing Back Into Grace" by Michael Horton

Period.

I'm sad to report the scary lack of (in female-Christian sectors) ability to articulate the essential doctrine of Justification. Unless we get this clear and right, how else will all the other things come round right?

wringing hands

Robin :chained:
Click to expand...

I agree with Robin.

Bob Godfrey's autobiography might work. It's short and inexpensive. -- not unlike Godfrey himself! :lol: An Unexpected Journey (Phila: P&R Publishing)

http://tinyurl.com/aqkv6

It's an excellent book to give newcomers to the Reformed faith.

rsc
 
Other, and the few trusted, titus 2 type authors to look for are Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Elisabeth Elliot.

[Edited on 12-28-2005 by LadyFlynt]
 
When my wife started to read Martha Peace and I looked at what that book said I ordered her to stop --and as a good Titus 2 woman, she obeyed.
If my wife had taken Martha's advice about going to the elders about me she would have been disciplined by them!
 
LadyFlynt,

It was "An Excellent Wife" and I felt that if my wife followed Martha's advice excellence was about the last thing she would attain to.
 
No, the review does not seem to address my concern. I agree that her book is fundamentally flawed, but disagree that rebukes should come from above or horizontally. My wife is perfectly welcome to rebuke me. She is not at liberty to be "a ruler of my faith".
 
I'm not sure where your issue lies then...if you would like, u2u me...I'm not following...

[Edited on 12-28-2005 by LadyFlynt]
 
Removing my recommendation on Martha Peace for furthur study of the issue. Thank you, Ruben and Heidi.
 
LadyFlynt,

I appreciate your conscientiousness tremendously. For the benefit of anyone else reading this thread let me just remark that in "The Excellent Wife" my wife and I stumbled across a section that required the woman to rebuke her husband, and haul him off to the elders if he didn't listen --but the illustrations given (about not helping clean and watching TV shows the wife felt uncomfortable with) were so trivial that it really seemed to be indicated that the wife rules over her husband's liberty with a rod of iron. The attitudes of submission and contention seem to me to be mutually exclusive --but the effect of Peace's book seems to be to bind the conscience of a woman to be contentious in disagreements with her husband, effectively counteracting the otherwise strong emphasis on submission.
So now my wife is reading "The Life & Times of Jesus the Messiah".
 
Without being too self-serving, I think the ladies enjoy "A Spectacle Unto God," the story of Christopher Love.

Don Kistler
 
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