Captivating

When I walked into the Thursday morning women's Bible study a year ago I was immediately intimidated by every single woman there.  The room was filled with beautiful women, of all shapes and sizes.  Most were mothers, or pregnant, all but me and 3 others were married...I just knew I wouldn't fit in, that they wouldn't accept me, that I'd never get over my insecurities...  

Since then I have gotten to know these women, and more importantly, LOVE these women.  We have a different group now, but some of the "originals" remain.  (Just a side note...the group met long before I joined so I'm not really an "original" member, but you know what I mean...)  One woman in particular seemed to be everything I so desired to be.  She's beautiful...like, guys stop in the street to tell her she's beautiful, kind of beautiful.  She's outgoing, has amazing clothes, does super cool things and travels a lot, she just seemed so glamourous.  I quickly learned that she's friendly, funny, and LOVES the Lord...which made it really hard to hate her like Satan was telling me to.

Anyway...this lovely lady recently mentioned a book she'd been reading and said she thought I'd enjoy it/get a lot out of it...I cracked open said book and was hit with this:

Now we are on holy ground.

Writing a book for men (Wild at Heart) was a fairly straightforward proposition.  Not that men are simpletons.  But they are the less complicated of the two genders trying to navigate love and life together.  Both men and women know this to be true.  The mystery of the feminine heart was meant to be a good thing, by the way.  A source of joy.  Yet it has become a source of shame-women almost universally feel they are "too much" and "not enough."  At the same time.  (Which is crazy-making.)  And men tend to pull away from the deeper waters of a woman's soul, unsure of what they will find there or how to handle it.  And so we have missed the treasure that is the heart of a woman, missed the richness femininity was meant to bring to our lives, missed the way it speaks to us of the heart of God.

Rest assured-this is not a book about all the things you are failing to do as a woman.  We're tired of those books...there is no "one size fits all" pattern for God's women. 

Yeah, I'm pretty much sold on the book just from this portion of the introduction.  The book, by the way, is Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge...and I'm sure this isn't the last time you'll be reading a blog about it...