Posted by Mrs BJ Dee on June 29, 2003 at 11:29:52:
May I please take a moment of your time to share my thoughts? Certainly, any book produced by a human hand and mind is not going to be flawless and should not be used in place of the Bible. And certainly, there are those who object to the chapter in Mrs. Andelin's book called "Fascinating Womanhood Applied to Sex" because of their interpretations of 1 Cor 7. With over 35,000 non-Catholic Christian groups and denominations, though, we can see that many interpretations of the Bible exist. However, I feel the need to share that I have lived by the precepts of this book for over 20 years, and Mrs. Andelin's teachings have helped me to be a better servant of God, woman, wife, mom, and homemaker. I was widowed after my first marriage and spent a l-o-n-g time searching for my Mr. Right (who turned out to be Major Right, lol). I knew that I would have to accept my future husband as he was (not as I wished him to be), and knowing that kept me from marrying one of the less-than appropriate men who crossed my path over the years. *Fascinating Womanhood* centers around the "change yourself first" principle, and this principle relates to the teaching given by Christ: "Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote from thy brother's eye" (Matthew 7:5). Only when we become perfect can we judge another, and since we humans will not be perfect on this earth, we should leave the judging to God. For me, Mrs. Andelin's book crystallized and made practical the Bible teachings I had heard and read all my life. I knew, for example, that I was to be my future husband's helpmeet, but what exactly did that entail? By the time I started wondering about such things, my parents had passed away and I had no reliable source in my life from whom to glean such information. Too, all of the women I grew up around seemed to loathe homemaking, but Mrs. Andelin helped me to see that homemaking is a calling from God and should be regarded as something special and worthy--even the drudgery. It would have been better if I had had Christian women in my life who loved being wives, moms, and homemakers and who had taught me as per Titus 2, but I didn't and this book helped to fill that gap in a tremendous and powerful way. Anyhoos, just my little bit of sharing. In His Love,
CJ