The Life-Ready Woman: Thriving in a Do-It-All World

By Shaunti Felhahn & Robert Lewis

Available in paperback and eBook versions. B&H Books, 2011; ISBN: 1433671123; 272 pages.

(This review was originally written and posted on my main blog 24 February 2011.)

I have to admit: when I started this book, I didn’t like it. The first few pages smelled of feminine empowerment and sexual superiority. While I believe in sexual equality, I do not believe in sexual sameness. Men and women were created differently on purpose and it is to our greatest advantage to invest and rejoice in those differing strengths. So, I was nervous. “Here comes another feminist who wants me to roar and run over my man.” But being familiar with FamilyLife (an organization promoting this book), I kept reading.

As I got past the first few pages, I was delighted to discover this author seeks to uphold God’s truths while affirming the wonderful position women have in our culture and time in history. Even better: She seeks to view our position in this post-modern world through the lens of God’s unchanging Word. We have unrecognizable freedom when compared with our foremothers and oppressed sisters in other countries. It is our privilege to seize that freedom and use it for God’s glory.

But how do we balance that freedom with the call to be wives, mothers, and more? How do we juggle housekeeping with jobs and soccer schedules and piano lessons and personal ambitions? Not to mention marriages and in-laws and neighbors and ministry and a healthy, growing relationship with God? That’s what this book is about.

Sure, we can do it all, but will we do it all well? What sacrifices are made when we spread ourselves so thin? And are those sacrifices worth it?

The Life Ready Woman equips readers to be deliberate with our choices so that we can live the fulfilling lives God intended for us without guilt or regret. The further I got into this book, the more valuable I found it. In fact I plan to enthusiastically recommend it and the accompanying video series for an upcoming study through our church.

Final Thoughts: If you're struggling to balance all that you feel you need to do, you need to read this book. I know you think you don't have time, but trust me. It will help.

Making Work at Home Work

by Mary M. Byers
Author Website: www.marybyers.com
Book Blog:www.makingworkathomework.com

Available in paperback. Revell, 2009; ISBN: 0800732758; 218 pages.

Mary Byers, author of The Mother Load: How to Meet Your Own Needs While Caring for Your Family and How to Say No . . . And Live to Tell about It, juggles both a freelance corporate writing and speaking business with her responsibilities as a wife and mother of two school-aged children. She does it successfully and has just released a new book sharing how she does it.

Making Work at Home Work is not a “how to start a home-based business” book. You can find a ton of those already. No, this is a much needed follow-up for those who have already started their businesses and need some direction in how to keep it going. As the title says, it helps those seeking to successfully grow a business and a family under one roof. It’s not about starting, but about maintaining. It’s not just about your business either. That is included, of course, but it’s also about your family: your husband, your children and yourself. It’s about having all of that and your sanity, too.

Here are some of the discussions within the book that I found most helpful.

• Understanding the difference between a SAHM and a WAHM is more than one letter
• Determining why you’re working and how much is enough
• The Parental Pact *A vital chapter!*
• Setting limits, boundaries, goals and regular work hours
• Creative child care options and determining when and if you need them
• How to distinguish and handle both kinds of guilt: good guilt and that comes from the Enemy
• What, when and how can you subcontract in order to raise revenue

The book also contains chapters on taxes, retirement, supper swaps, vacations, faith and sanity. Readers enjoy profiles of real moms running real businesses and how they do it.

I only saw one downside, and it’s minimal. The beginning chapters seemed redundant, not to other sources, but to themselves. Speakers tend to reiterate their point frequently throughout their speeches. Writers don’t need to do that because readers can simply turn back a page or a chapter and re-read what they missed. At conferences or lectures, though, listeners can’t turn back time. They need to hear the point over and over to get it. The beginning couple chapters were like that. The author repeated herself frequently to make sure we got the point. By the fourth chapter (forty pages in) this stopped.

Final Thoughts: It’s a fantastic book, one I wish I’d had years ago with my first work-at-home ventures.

SuperMom Has Left the Building: Being a Proverbs 31 Woman in a 21st Century World

by Judith Edwards

Available in paperback. New Hope Publishers, 2004; ISBN: 1563097729; 176 pages.

What woman hasn't been intimidated by Proverbs 31? In today's world, who is free from the pressures of needing to do it all and do it perfectly? In this book, Judith Edwards takes a personal look at this super-woman verse by verse. In candid voice and with great humor, she encourages and challenges women to re-evaluate our understanding of what God expects from us. It's not about doing everything. It's not about being the best or having the cleanest house. It's about our relationship with Him and how we overflow that relationship to those around us. Using personal stories of her life as a wife, mother and missionary, she relieves the pressures of trying to be SuperMom and the guilt from not meeting what we think society and God demand.

This is an excellent book of encouragement and edification. The chapters are short making them easy to digest. Her teachings are biblically accurate. Within just the first few pages, I felt I had made a new friend. That friend carried me through to a new, more positive view of self and responsibility.

Final thoughts: Definitely RECOMMENDED.

Organizing Magic: 40 Days to a Well-Ordered Home and Life

by Sandra Felton

Available in paperback. Revell, 2006; ISBN: 0800730992; 208 pages.

This should actually be "40 STEPS to Well-Ordered Home and Life." I love the idea of becoming Martha Stewart in less than two months, but, unfortunately, it took me six months to get through the book. (I wanted to implement each chapter before moving on to the next.) And I'm still not Martha Stewart.

This is a great book! The author offers practical and sound advice for behavioral change. It's not a book of "put this here and buy this organizing tool." Rather it is a collection of tiny steps to help people change their behavior toward more organized living. The author doesn't want to give people cleaning schedules; she wants to help people maintain clean and organized homes by encouraging clean and organized habits. The book design is colorful (quite feminine, but I'm a woman, so I didn't mind too much) and easy to read. Sidebars and shoutouts are prevalent. The chapters are short making it perfectly bite-sized reading.

Final Thoughts: Definitely RECOMMENDED.