Reading and Remembering with Worthy: Celebrating the Value of Women {May Edition}

In this month’s edition of Reading and Remembering, I’m spotlighting Worthy: Celebrating the Value of Women by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Eric Schumacher. I read Worthy as part of a book study with my sister and my friend Elise. I enjoyed the beginning of the book, but then got bogged down a little bit in the middle. The end, however, is filled with encouragement that is grounded in the gospel. The Appendices are insightful and could prove helpful to pastors and church leaders who need some practical suggestions about how to implement some of the ideas in the book. Last summer, my sister and I read through Carolyn Custis James’ book Lost Women of the Bible, which is a similar book in content and message. I liked Lost Women of the Bible better, but would still recommend Worthy–especially the last few chapters.

Reading

Ministries have been established and funded on the premise that the most important message of Christianity is that we not succumb to feminism–a byproduct of that message being the importance of marriage and raising a family. We agree that feminism and secularism are to be resisted, but they’re not the dominant danger faced by the church. The foremost dangers modern evangelicalism faces are the idolatry of the family, the idolatry of political power, and the self-trust that comes from a message that offers three steps to self-perfection. We’re not at risk of losing our morals. We risk losing the Gospel’s message.

Elyse Fitzpatrick and Eric Schumacher, Worthy: Celebrating the Value of Women

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You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 5

***

[Janner] ran blindly into the snow, not knowing or caring which direction. His heart erupted with anger and sadness and embarrassment and hurt that he had to put somewhere. So he ran. His cheeks ached with cold. His nose dripped, and he hated the way he sounded, blubbering words that made no sense. He wanted his father to be alive, to love his mother, to make her young again, the way she had been just now. He fell to the ground and convulsed with sobs, heedless of the snow on his face.

He wanted to be alone, and he wanted to be found. He wanted his family to ignore him, to show their indifference and feed his anger, and at the same time he pleaded to the Maker that they would come and lift him from the frozen ground. And in the middle of it all, he felt the Maker’s presence so palpably that the very wind seemed to be his breath and the snowflakes his touch. Janner knew he was not alone, nor could he be, however far he ran.

Then he felt hands on his back and arms, and he heard Kalmar’s voice in his ear, saying, “I’m here.”

The Monster in the Hollows by Andrew Peterson (book three of the Wingfeather Saga)

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“When I was a boy,” said Floyd, “there was a man in our village taught a craney-crow to read.”

“He never did!” answered Massey. “What do you mean he taught a craney-crow to read?”

“I mean you put some writing in front of that long-legged bird, and he could read it.”

“You’re telling me a bird could look at a paper and tell you what the writing said?” asked Massey, sure his hunting partner was putting him on.

“I didn’t say the man taught a craney-crow to talk,” answered Floyd. “I said he taught one how to read. He’d just read quiet to himself–didn’t even have to move his lips like you do, Massey.”

“Then how in tarnation,” asked Massey, “could you know he was reading and not just looking?”

“He had a real wise and solemn look in his eye,” said Floyd. “Just looking at him you could see he knew what he was about.”

The Secret of the Swamp King by Jonathan Rogers (book two of the Wilderking Trilogy)

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Here’s an easy game to play.
Here’s an easy thing to say…

New socks.
Two socks.
Whose socks?
Sue’s socks.

Who sews whose socks?
Sue sews Sue’s socks.

Who sees who sew whose new socks, sir?
You see Sue sew Sue’s new socks, sir.

That’s not easy, Mr. Fox, sir.

Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss

Remembering

I’m currently writing music to Psalm 101 to help myself commit it to memory. You can be sure I’ll post the song when it is finished and recorded! Here are the first few verses:

I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
to you, O Lord, I will make music.
I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?
I will walk with integrity of heart
within my house;
I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me.
A perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will know nothing of evil.

***

What are you reading and remembering?