Review: Feminine Appeal

January 6th, 2006

The rain has let up here in Northern California, at least for now. We have been enjoying a few sunny-60- degree-weather days in a row. Every evening this week has been a great time having Brad here visiting. We’ve been staying up late reading and talking a lot about blogs. Our friends come over, we have dinner or dessert and watch movies or just talk together. Basically each day is a new reason to hang out together.

Yesterday I finished a new book that my in-laws gave me for Christmas: Feminine Appeal, by Carolyn Mahaney (Her husband is well-known pastor and author C.J. Mahaney). This is an easy-to-read practical study of the seven virtues spelled out in Titus 2:3-5. This part in the foreword grabbed my attention, “If you are a ‘younger woman’, you hold in your hands a mentor, an excellent guide to spiritual maturity.” From this perspective I was excited as I continued to read because I often long to sit at the feet of an older women who I can respect and follow in life with the Lord. This book proves to be a good “mentor” as Mahaney takes an in-depth look at loving one’s husband, loving one’s children, self-control, purity, working at home, kindness and submission.

She made a particular point in an illustration toward the end of the book that really stuck with me:

———————————————————–
If we hold out a soaking wet sponge and squeeze it,
what will happen? Water will fall onto the floor. We
may look at the puddle and think it was caused by the
squeeze. However, the squeeze only revealed what was
already in the sponge. You could squeeze a dry sponge,
but no water would come out.As with the sponge, what is in our hearts will spill out of us
when the squeeze is on. In other words, difficult interactions
or trying experiences are not the cause of our reactions;
rather they serve to reveal the sin that was there all along.
Matthew 15:18 says that “what comes out of the mouth
proceeds from the heart.”
———————————————————–
This is an excellent book for wives to read, as it addresses the matters of marriage and home. However, I think that a single woman could also glean a great deal from its pages as the exhortation from Titus 2 is for all women so that in everything we may “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” (Titus 2:10) Mahaney makes this point of adorning the gospel with our lives several times. She says that our conduct has a direct influence on how people who know us and watch us will think about the gospel. “Make no mistake, by adorning the gospel, we are not enhancing or improving it” but cultivating these qualities will show “the transforming effect of the gospel in the lives of women–women who have turned from their sins and trusted the Savior, women whose sins have been forgiven and whose hearts have been changed.”

2 Comments

  1. Kim
    January 6th, 2006

    I heard a similar analogy to this once. It said that we don’t know a lemon is really sour until it is squeezed, meaning that we don’t know what we are like on the inside until we face a little pressure.

    This sounds like a good book.

  2. Sunny
    October 13th, 2007

    I am in the process of reading this book with my bible study group. I am a new stay at home mom and this book has brought wonderful insight. I can barely put it down.
    I would recommend this book to all wifes and mothers.

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