I've just read the book a lot of my friends are talking about in preparation for discussing it with them: A Year of Bib. Womanhood.
Yes, I'm sort of late to the party. I'm sure elsewhere it's been blogged and discussed to death.
But this is my story with the book.
I read this book, and immediately followed reading it with a beach trip: but the beach I went to was with some of my friends from QHD. They're married with young children, so we went to the most family-friendly resort possible. I was the only single person there.
The families were super gracious, and readily included me the whole time (as they always do). I always had someone to hang out with, and had a super time connecting with everyone there. It was a fantastic few days of vacation.
But I was the odd one out, by a really long shot. Every other woman around me wascaring for toddler size children (or pregnant and caring for toddler too). The men talked together about things I could more easily follow: iPad apps, teaching, financial stuff, books. The women talked about stuff I didn't know much about: pregnancy problems, homeschooling issues, what the kids eat and when they nap. Of course, the women were super great and asked lots of questions about my life as well. But our lives were nowhere near the same.
Now: ponder A Year of Bib. Womanhood in this context. I'm glad the author is married, but still no kids. A good middle ground from which to write.
It was a healing book for me, because by reading it and wrestling with the things that popped up in my soul (wondering what my place is if I'm not currently married and bearing children, envy of those who get to do those things), I realized that the main point is His grace.
By his grace, we're all designed differently. Each of us has a different plan He wishes us to travel. All of us must wrestle with what it means to be a woman following the Way and how to follow well. The instant we lay down legalistic laws of how others should do that we're missing the point, because the point is grace.
As I was wrapped up in the grace of the families there, even while wrestling with being the odd person out, I was glad for the grace He's given me: peace with where I am right now, an increased ability to rejoice with others, and a deeper understanding that it's all hard, but He gives us all grace.
I am letting go of "rules" of what being a Bib. woman looks like. I want to be clothed in strength and dignity, and anchored in my core by His love and tethered to Life by His grace.
Yes, I'm sort of late to the party. I'm sure elsewhere it's been blogged and discussed to death.
But this is my story with the book.
I read this book, and immediately followed reading it with a beach trip: but the beach I went to was with some of my friends from QHD. They're married with young children, so we went to the most family-friendly resort possible. I was the only single person there.
The families were super gracious, and readily included me the whole time (as they always do). I always had someone to hang out with, and had a super time connecting with everyone there. It was a fantastic few days of vacation.
But I was the odd one out, by a really long shot. Every other woman around me wascaring for toddler size children (or pregnant and caring for toddler too). The men talked together about things I could more easily follow: iPad apps, teaching, financial stuff, books. The women talked about stuff I didn't know much about: pregnancy problems, homeschooling issues, what the kids eat and when they nap. Of course, the women were super great and asked lots of questions about my life as well. But our lives were nowhere near the same.
Now: ponder A Year of Bib. Womanhood in this context. I'm glad the author is married, but still no kids. A good middle ground from which to write.
It was a healing book for me, because by reading it and wrestling with the things that popped up in my soul (wondering what my place is if I'm not currently married and bearing children, envy of those who get to do those things), I realized that the main point is His grace.
By his grace, we're all designed differently. Each of us has a different plan He wishes us to travel. All of us must wrestle with what it means to be a woman following the Way and how to follow well. The instant we lay down legalistic laws of how others should do that we're missing the point, because the point is grace.
As I was wrapped up in the grace of the families there, even while wrestling with being the odd person out, I was glad for the grace He's given me: peace with where I am right now, an increased ability to rejoice with others, and a deeper understanding that it's all hard, but He gives us all grace.
I am letting go of "rules" of what being a Bib. woman looks like. I want to be clothed in strength and dignity, and anchored in my core by His love and tethered to Life by His grace.
