Friday, January 25, 2013

A Year of Biblical Womanhood - a book review

 Just the title alone caught my attention. Especially with everything else that I have been studying this past year. There seems to be a resurgence of wanting to live life like "they used to". I thought this would be a good read for that reason and maybe find an answer to some of those why and how questions of being a Biblical woman.

I loved everything about this book. I read it on my Kindle and the spacing for the ereader was smooth. I've read some ebooks that have been very hard to read. The chapters were complete, they answered all of the questions that I had on each topic or they gave me a taste and a note where else to look for a more thorough answer. The Biblical women at the beginning of each chapter was nice. She gave their history and their importance to the Bible. Everyone is in the Bible for a reason and they have a purpose. It was interesting to see the connection from the Biblical woman to the month's scripture and virtue challenges.

I loved her need to be a woman of valor and to find and encourage those women. Eshet chayil! I'm excited to see that she has started collecting those stories on her website.

I loved how she dug through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and picked out all the descriptors for women and showed us how they work in our time. Some of them were easy and some were not so easy.

Rachel Held Evans set up ten commandments that she would follow for a year. She quoted the verses where she found these in the Bible. I thought I would share them with you for you to get a taste of the book.

1. Thou shalt submit to thy husband's will in all things
2. Thou shalt devote thyself to the duties of the home
3. Thou shalt mother
4. Thou shalt nurture a gentle and quiet spirit.
5. Thou shalt dress modestly
6. Thou shalt cover thy head when in prayer
7. Thou shalt not cut thy hair
8. Thou shalt not teach in church
9. Thou shalt not gossip
10. Thou shalt not have authority over a man.

The answers she received through the year are not necessarily what she expected. Many were richer and fuller than she expected to experience them.

You get it all honest and up front through the book. Which seems to make it ring truer. For someone who didn't know her or this project, you could see the honesty and know she wasn't creating a story.

I love how she connects the Jewish holidays to Christianity. That's our heritage, we should celebrate all that those ancestors went through. they aren't fluffy ceremonies. They are ceremonies rich in texture and history. Unlike so many of our Americanized holidays.

I'll save her 10 New Year's Resolutions for you to read for yourself. She uses these to sum up what the past year has meant to her and what she all learned and what she's bringing out of it.

I have two great quotes from the book.
"My roots were growing deeper."
"If you want to do violence in this world, you will always find weapons. If you want to heal, you will always find the balm."

This book urges me to live a more Biblical womanhood. To feel closer to God by being more of what he designed me to be. If you know anyone questioning the Bible on being a woman, this is a great read for them.

Let's all go out and become Eshet chayil!