My Wife Reviews a Book

[greenbaggins]

Practical Theology for Women: How Knowing God Makes a Difference in Our Daily Lives

I asked my wife to read this book and give me a book review of it, and she willingly and graciously assented. So, these are her words, only lightly edited.

There are no pet issues, feel-good fuzzies, or cultural buzzwords in this book. It is not a book for the shallow Christian, yet it is understandable enough for any who desire to grow and benefit from it. This book is solidly biblical, very challenging, extremely practical, and amazingly conservative. In short, it is the book for women I have long bemoaned that all the others aren't. This woman must have read the Puritans, or at any rate, she knows their God. This book will make you think, but not overwhelm the "non-intellectual" types. Here are some quotations I found helpful:

My husband and boys can't be my idols. I can't pin all of my hopes for the future on their personal successes. It's not fair to them, and it keeps me from placing my hope for the future in God's hands. I must be a steward of my roles of wife and mom, not an idolater who looks to her husband and children for her sense of personal achievement. The same is true for you in whatever calling God has given you. Jesus must be our source of identity.

Instead of seeing ourselves as connected to Christ at all times, we tend to view our relationship with God in terms of intersecting moments during the day. We think that the more times our lives intersect with God, the more "spiritual" we are. In this paradigm, God goes on his way and I go on my way until we intersect at another corner later that day, week, month, or year. Instead, we need to think of ourselves walking with Jesus continually, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. If you are a believer, Christ is with you, in you, holding you together at all times. The goal is for us to be aware of that reality and live in light of it, for Christ warns us that apart from him we can do nothing (see John 15). (Taken from pp. 96-97)