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In my travels across the blogosphere this morning:
A rare glimpse of Chris at The Big Yellow House. Holy Moley she is totally adorable! And TINY! Do you think she actually gave birth to all 7 kids???
She also talked about her quirky gift-giving and getting history while growing up. It reminded me of some people we used to know when I was a kid. I don't know if the husband just didn't get his wife gifts, or if the ones he bought just really stunk, but by the time we knew them the wife was in the habit of purchasing gifts that she wanted for herself at Christmas time or whatever. She would wrap them up beautifully with a card that said, "To Marcia, with all my love, Jack" and when she opened them she would act all surprised and thrilled and tell her husband what a great gift it was, seeing as how it was Just What She Wanted!
Some of you may remember my hissy fit about the sample chapter of Debi Pearl's new book Created to Be His Help Meet. Well, the book has been out for awhile now (selling bazillions to women who are gluttons for punishment all over the world), and there are several capable bloggers reviewing this unfortunate book. It seems to me, from reading these reviews, that my initial impressions were right on the money. I refuse to buy the book in order to give it more press here, nor do I think my blood pressure could stand all of the head shaking rage I would feel while reading the entire thing. (one chapter just about did me in) This is one of those books, sort of like the Ezzo parenting garbage, where according to Pearl fans, you are supposed to substitute what is said in the book, for what we want to pretend they actually mean. Uh huh. No thanks. Really, what the problem seems to be is that Debi can't just stop at the truth. She has to stretch and twist and add to it, until although there is a nugget of good stuff every now and then, it is covered over with a lot of misuse of the Bible, personal opinions, tacky comments, and trite little stories to prove that Debi's way is the Right Way. I don't know about you, but I prefer to read books that keep the refuse to a minimum, rather than the main course.
If you want to go read for yourself, here are some worthy spots to stop:
Keer Unplugged has chapter-by-chapter reviews.
Spunky Homeschool A husband and wife team up to write a several-part review of the book.
A concise review here, on Aug. 16. (didn't find a permalink for it so you'll have to scroll down a bit) Be sure to notice the un-be-lie-vable "Dumb Cluck Test"--a worthy show of Debi's mighty-fine biblically-sound book (cough, cough, gag, sputter, barf...)
Faithful reader SolarGrin has decided to take her blog into stealth mode. It was one of those "oopsie....too many real-life people know about my blog" situations. I'm constantly having to remind myself not to mention my blog to people. A very few real life people know about mine. Past that, I don't want the pressure. I have this blog so that I can share what's on my mind, tell my opinions without worrying about offending people, and vent about the stuff in life that seems to have no other place to vent. So, I have had to cultivate the "I've got a secret" mentality...
I have a few thoughts knocking around in my head today....might even get around to blogging about 'em, too. Stay tuned.....
Friday, August 19, 2005
Friday Morning Meme
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3 comments:
I also have read "Created to Be His Help Meet." My friend suggested it to me. I read it and this is what I have to say about it.... I learned A LOT, that doesn't mean that I agree with all that she had to say, in a lot of the book I thought that she was way out in left field, BUT she did make valid points about how we should not make the focus so on "us" (women) and make it more on our husbands. I would say that if you are looking to read this book, take 3/4 of it seriously and the other 1/4 with a grain of salt. Ms. Pearl is radical, and some of the info just made me crack up, but I was discerning while reading it and I was able to get the diamond out of the coal mine while reading it. Try it, you'll learn some and you'll laugh some. ;-) ~B
I'm thinking that there is no reason on earth why someone would need to read Mrs. Pearl's book in order to get marriage advice. There are several solid, Bible-based books available on the subject, that don't require the reader to have to be so actively discerning and on guard, spitting out vile seeds as they go. The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace is pretty good (although I did not love it) and I like books on marriage and family from Doug and Nancy Wilson. Much better choices than CTBHHM, in my not-so-humble opinion. :)
Like I said--if she could have stopped at the main points (Don't be selfish, stop thinking that the world revolves around you, your husband benefits from your love/admiration/attraction to him/respect/etc.) then it would have been fine. Sadly, she didn't, and does a disservice to her readers. Especially those who may not have much Bible knowledge or be very impressionable.
Tulip,
The thing that always strikes me about books such as those from Ezzo and Debi Pearl are that they are SO in violation of being sound teachers of the Bible. I am shocked when they coat their stuff as being Biblical, but then twist and turn and lie and pervert things so much. HOW anybody has the nerve to do that is beyond me.
I often think about writing books. I think I've got at least 3 in my noggin right now. But, YIKES!, the huge responsibility to be sure that when one represents Christ and the Bible in a large-scale way.....well, it intimidates me. Too bad others don't seem to have the same fear of God in 'em.....
Teachers are held to a higher standard than others. Pretty serious stuff.
If they wanted to write books full of their own opinions, they should just do that and leave the Bible out of it.
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