3.5 stars. It was very interesting. A few funny bits throughout and lots of enlightening moments. It was refreshing to read and be reminded that it is okay to fail. It's the trying and learning from that is the most important. I took a few things from this book that I'd like to apply to my life except I know I am not woman enough to try this entire year long experiment. God bless her for doing it! Part memoir, part Biblical study, A Year of Biblical Womanhood was funny, informative, touching, and thoughtful. Very well researched, Rachel Held Evans spends most of the book dispelling common misconceptions of what the Bible says of about women, yet choosing to live through those misconceptions anyway. She discovers that far from oppressing women, the Bible empowers them. There is no single lifestyle that a woman is called to lead, and most outright commands given to women in the New Testament are given to men as well. Instead she finds that our call as women is the same as the call of men: to love God, love each other, and to best our best selves we can be. Yet, Evans found peace and comfort in many of the things she discovered women aren't required to do, and learned to love doing them anyway. I learned a lot reading this book. I learned not to worry about what others think of me or my lifestyle. Not to feel like a terrible wife when I ask my husband to do the dishes. That the gender roles we've adopted in our home aren't requirements, that we chose them because we each prefer our job, and I don't need to feel guilty when I need help with mine. But I also learned that I am not doing what Jesus has called us to do. I am not helping those in need the way that I could or should. In secluding myself from the world for my own comfort I do a great dis-service to the men, women, and children living in poverty around the world (and in my hometown). Evans encourages readers to be a "woman of valor", to do everything you do to the glory of God. I could definitely improve in this area. And after reading about her struggles and knowing that I'm not alone in not always knowing where to begin, I feel empowered to try despite my fears and anxieties. I want to end with one of my favorite passages from the book."If God is the God of all pots and pans, then He is also the God of all shovels and computers and paints and assembly lines and executive offices and classrooms. Peace and joy belong not to the woman who find the right vocation, but to the woman who finds God in any vocation, who loos for the divine around every corner."
Do You like book A Year Of Biblical Womanhood (2012)?
loved the year with Rachel, and her final conclusions about women and the Bible are priceless ...
—VivaLaGloriia
