Name Change, Redesign, and a Move!

Hey all, since the initial founding of Reading in Faith, my vision for the blog has grown into a desire to create a ministry where young women share their stories about Christian living to encourage our peers to pursue a gracious, joyful, loving life. This vision has become Sufficient in Grace.

I have decided not to change the URL of this blog for sentimental reasons, for the practical reason so that y'all know we still exist and can follow the move, and because I may pick up this blog again in the future. For now, however, we'll be moving to Sufficient in Grace. I hope that you'll follow us over there!

Review: Letting Go of Perfect by Amy E. Spiegel

Letting Go of Perfect
Amy E. Spiegel

Genre: Christian Life, Women's Issues
Hardback: 288 Pages
Publication: May 1, 2012
by B&H Publishing

Have you ever felt as though you didn’t recognize yourself in the mirror and yet you’re frantically trying to keep that image together? Felt bound by the dreams you had for life that you now realize have forced other expectations on you? Or maybe you’ve laughed at one of those insanely ridiculous moments in the day when absolutely everything goes wrong and no matter what you do, the grand purpose seems elusive.

Let’s be honest. We all have a standard in our head that we believe is the perfect Christian woman, wife, and/or mother. Yet, have you ever really examined what that standard is? Yes, God absolutely has standards for what those roles are to be, but is He our source, or is it the peer-pressure-don’t- be-the-odd-one-out-on-Sunday-morning drive to fit in that is driving us away from authenticity and raw faith to outward performance?

Amy Spiegel knows this struggle well and notes, “so many of the women I know seem to feel the same tension in their own lives, teetering on the edge, praying someone will be there to catch them if they fall.” There is a grand purpose to where you are today; join Amy in Letting Go of Perfect to look at what it means to truly know the woman in the mirror as well as the God who created, redeems, and equips her.

Review

Amy Spiegel makes a lot of great points on how to let go of the image of the perfect woman that bombards us in our daily lives. Many of these speak to my own heart, and I appreciate the message that she's sending out to us.

My problem with this book is with the organization. I know that many women love this book and how Spiegel shares details from her own life to drive home a point. I too appreciate how Spiegel draws from her own life to show us how we should direct attention to what God intends for us rather than what the world tells us we should be. For me, however, it was easy to get lost in the storytelling and forget the point of the chapter, and it was difficult to see how the threads connected. The narrative just didn't work for me.

What I would have liked to see was more time spent with specific incidents and exploring how they relate to the topic being discussed instead of jumping from event to event without fully connecting them together. This includes spending more time on tying these specific incidents to the gospel and, thus, sharing with us how to let go of perfect as defined by the world for a gospel-centered life living in God's word.

Again, not every book is for everyone. This book just didn't happen to be for me. If you like book and movie references and are looking to relate to someone who's gone through the struggles of wifehood and mommyhood and come out with a stronger faith, this might be for you.

Rating: 2 stars

Morning Meditation: Whose Glory Do We Seek?

Scripture

"The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood."

ESV, John 7:18

Observation
If we speak from ourselves, we glorify the body. If we speak to honor and pursue God, we speak truth. Thus, we should seek to glorify God with our words and actions.

Application
I want my actions and words to come from a place of worship and to strive ot honor God in all that I do that I may speak truth and not deceive myself and others with false wisdom.

Prayer
Lord, thank you for this reminder to constantly seek you and understand your Word. Help us to speak from a place of worship that we may honor you with our words and actions. Help us to speak the truth and be honest in all our actions that our examples will encourage others to pursue you as well.


Original photo may be found on Flickr