Five Points Blog
Feminine Appeal - A Review
- Becky Sherwood
- Feb 20, 2012
Carolyn Mahaney has been married to CJ Mahaney, a pastor and ministry leader, for more than 25 years. She has spoken to women in many churches and conferences, including Sovereign Grace Ministries, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and Family Life. She and her three daughters also write the blog Girl Talk containing gospel-centered conversations on biblical womanhood. She has also written Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother.
Feminine Appeal goes through seven virtues of a godly wife and mother, namely loving my husband, loving my children, self-control, purity, working at home, kindness and submission. Carolyn’s passion for who God is and how he has designed womanhood is evident throughout the book. As she continually points back to the amazing truths of the gospel she never loses sight of how practical those very truths are.
I first read Feminine Appeal the first year JJ was in seminary. My women’s small group went through it together and I loved it! It was so convicting and well written that it felt like you were just having a conversation over a cup of coffee with Carolyn. She is a great example of a Titus 2 woman who shares great biblical and practical wisdom throughout the book. It had such a significant impact on my life and marriage that I have given away dozens of copies of this book at wedding showers and to many friends and family.
This book also includes one of my favorite quotes when talking about the attitude of humility and mercy. She quotes Charles Spurgeon, who says, “He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he therefore does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more. He overlooks ten thousands of their faults, because he knows his God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case. He does not expect perfection in the creature, and, therefore, he is not disappointed when he does not find it.” What a great reminder that I try to apply daily in my marriage and in all my other relationships!
This book is great to read on your own or with a small group, as it has helpful study and discussion questions in the back of the book. The chapters on marriage and children have had the most impact on my life for there she reminds us that wives and mothers need to die to self every day and we need to preach the gospel to ourselves constantly. She says, “As mothers, we have a choice. We can either resent the challenges and demands that accompany motherhood and persist in our selfishness, or we can draw from God’s grace and receive His help to cheerfully lay down our lives for our children.”
Finally, I love how she encourages women to passionately and joyfully love their husbands and children. This is a wonderful book for a younger woman who is thinking about marriage and children because it can prepare her for these endeavors, as well as for those women who have been married for many years and already have children because it can encourage them to be the wife and mother they were designed by God to be.
Nancy Leigh DeMoss summarizes it best in the foreword when she says, “Carolyn is not just a theoretician. Through nearly thirty years of marriage, and as a mother of four, she has lived out the priorities and virtues of Titus 2 in the laboratory of life. And, as the Scripture directs, she is a discipler and has poured out her life to teach the ways of God to others - first to her three daughters and then to women in the church.”
Feminine Appeal is a great book for women in the church and I pray that the Lord will use it in your life as much as He has in mine.