I am reading a book by John and Staci Eldredge, "Captivating". I do not normally read books like that - religious ones, I mean. I have not had a great experience with organized religion, neither personally nor in my learning through histories and media. I find the rigidity I am often met with to be narrow minded and not on the side of God. I do not believe that humans can get religion entirely right and I resent those who claim their way is the ONLY way. I think that at the very least, it is presumptive and at the worst, it is raising themselves up to the level of God.
The way this relates to the book is that they don't claim to be the authority. And many -not all- of their views would be progressive, I guess, maybe liberal? This book looks at femininity and womanhood in terms of the bible - how it translates to our lives through biblical times, history, families and even pop culture. I don't agree with all they say, you won't find me shouting out to the evil spirits that they would claim cause my continual pain and I certainly don't think I NEED a man to pray for/with me (she prayed, too, but felt she had to turn to an acquaintance to help her past getting in an argument with another woman).
As you may have guessed from the tenor of this blog, I am searching for myself. For understanding, for happiness, for faith, for purpose, for motivation, for relief... I have really only talked about it with one of my friends and I didn't really list out everything to her. She knows I am looking for books to help me on this quest, she is the only one. "Captivating" came to me from my brother. Yes, my younger brother who I don't discuss religion with because he says believes the Bible is literal and has been protected from alteration throughout the centuries. When I challenge him, I get the sense that he doesn't really believe that by the way he gets flustered, but he is still new to his quest and I don't have any intention of upsetting him. He can believe what he wants, but he gets a little frustrated with me that I don't believe that way too. I believe in time we will be able to discuss it.
While I outright don't understand some parts, I have learned a thing or 2 as well and it has inspired more questions. I am mainly concentrating on using this information to improve my marriage. I, however, am not the only person in my marriage. I have asked him to read books before and he never has. I went through "Babyproofing Your Marriage" with Post-Its handy, making notes and notations with the assurance that he would read it too. He got to page 4, over the course of 2 hours that he spent in the bedroom one evening, away from the family, and he didn't touch it again. (I didn't include the Post-Its) I have told him that I find "Captivating" interesting for the points it makes about raising girls and am appealing to him to read it for the same reasons. Which is true. The same goes with their book about men. I'm hoping he'll read these as an interested parent, since I don't think he'll do it as a husband. So, my problem is, if I hand this over in faith to God, how am I supposed to stand up for myself when he's being a jackass? If his behavior is not acceptable, what am I supposed to be doing? Having faith doesn't mean God will make everything perfect. It doesn't mean He will transform my husband into the person he says he is/wants to be. Having faith in my husband is FAR different from having faith in God. That is the problem I'm having with translating the lessons in the book to real life. It's a start and I'm sure you'll be hearing more about it.
I can't get the link to work properly from my title "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret."
