Books Captivating: A Guided Journal: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - Good Reads
Great book! Just read the first page... Very motivational looking at how God can effect your life as a woman.

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Rating: - Beautiful
That's really the best word I can think of for this book. I read the actual book it was made to accompany a while ago and apparently forgot about how lovely it is, because this book took my breath away (and I haven't even gotten all the way through it yet!)

So many books out there merely give women advice on how to serve, and this is a good thing; we are all called to serve. However, we need more than this lesson in life; in order to truly serve, we need to know what we can give, how much we have to offer. In this book, Stasi Eldredge tells us just how much beauty God put into His daughters.

I honestly think that the people who condemn this book as unChristian (namely women) are afraid: not cowardly afraid, but over-righteously afraid, to recognize and acknowledge their own beauty, the essence of their souls that only a magnificent and utterly Supreme God could create. In this book, Stasi Eldredge completely, fearlessly throws off the veil and explores women's beauty. It wasn't until I read this book that I realized just how much Christians shy away from this! Artists, poets, and philososphers are allowed to explore human beauty, but not Christian women; so often we shroud ourselves and hide from it.

I wouldn't have you think that this book encourages women to walk around, shameless and vain; just the opposite! Stasi spends the whole book praising God's beauty and our need to acknowledge His Supreme being, because only He could create such magnificence as Creation! This is what I love about Stasi Eldredge: she's utterly fearless. She's not afraid to explore human beauty to the utter core, to praise the mystical essence and beauty a woman holds, and yet she never comes across as vain or idolatrous; she traces it all back to God, whose beauty none could compare to. She proves to be a woman who knows and sees, vividly, every inch of beauty that God put on this earth and she's not afraid to praise every creation of His, including humans ourselves.

One of Stasi's strengths is her amazing empathy; I've never had an author pinpoint so many issues that I thought I was the only one experiencing. Because of her habit of examining everything to its core, she looks at details that many authors of women's issues totally overlook. When she was asking the reader how she feels about her own image, she actually asked, "Do you hate having your picture taken? Do you always scorn the pictures afterwards?" That really caught me off guard, because I do; I always shy away from the camera and find some disgusting fault with the picture after it's taken. Never before had any Christian author asked me this or taken it into account as part of how I see myself as a daughter of God.

It always amazes me how some of Stasi's critics try to take her to task for "inflating women's egos" or not chastising them. I can only conclude that such women have never read this book all the way through, because Stasi consistently describes the faults of the "fallen Eve" and how women should not be dominant, clinging, and controlling. In fact, another one of issues that she totally caught me off guard with was when she was reminding us that feminine beauty, at its best, invites the men in our lives to flourish in their masculinity, to be great and strong men of God. John Eldredge stepped in at this point and talked briefly about the desires in the hearts of men, to be adventurous and free.

Stasi then asked the reader point-blank, "How have you felt about these desires in men? Do you like them? Encourage them?" Casual questions, but once again, I was caught off guard, because I realized, to my shame, that I had not always encouraged these qualities in men. You see, there have been times in the past when, sick of hearing about quiet and submissive women, I began to subconsciously hate anything that could be described as softly feminine because I was afraid of resembling stifled women and weak femininity in any way. On the same token, around this time, I began to subconsciously hate and reject the idea of particularly strong men because I saw this sort of man as dominant. I did not want to be dominated or rescued, so I began rejecting the picture of masculine strength at its greatest, because it automatically represented suppression to me. I hadn't truly realized how harmful this is. Yes, some men do get too buffed up and proud, but this does not mean I should discourage masculine strength! By doing so, I was giving men the same disservice I was always afraid they would give me: suppression. Both men and women need to be all they can be, in order to be complete soldiers of God. I would sin greatly against my brothers in Christ if I did not encourage the power and strength God gave to them! As a partner in Christ to a man, I should encourage him and strengthen him to the best of my ability, not stifle him to keep him from stifling me. I'm so grateful that Stasi Eldredge reminded me of this. She helped me realize what I was doing and to remember the truth of both masculine beauty and feminine beauty at its greatest.

This book, just like its parent, is beautiful, refreshing, and totally unique. I cannot recommend it highly enough! Read it, my sisters, and don't stop here; there are so many other amazing Christian authors out there and the more I look, the more beauty I find. As of this moment, I am not afraid to say that I am a daughter of God, a creation of the Father, and I am beautiful (in His eyes, at least).

Your turn!


(Other Christian journals I recommend: Elizabeth George's "A Woman after God's own Heart Prayer Journal", Nancy Leigh Demoss's "Journey to a Heart Like His" and Debi Pearl's "The Helpmeet's Journey")

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Rating: - Life changing
As a woman who teaches Bible studies, I find this book very captivating, most of the information I either knew or experienced because of my walk with the Lord, but is nice to have a book that can be used as a tool to help other women open up and recognize their wounds but also acknowlege that God can heal them. I am using it again in another Bible Study because it is really helpful in allowing women the permission to open up in small groups. I would recommend this book to any female struggling with who she is and one interested in doing a Bible Study for women who need to experience God's love through their pain.

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Rating: - I had heard so much good, and it was really really bad
My cousin recommended this book to me, and I just felt it was a repeat of so much other self help stuff that is currently out there. Don't get this book... the publisher must be paying their marketing people big bucks to be promoting this cr*p.