GirlTalk: conversations on biblical womanhood and other fun stuff

girltalk Blog

Oct 29

The Ology Book and CD

2015 at 7:48 am   |   by Nicole Whitacre Filed under Resource Recommendations | Motherhood

Last weekend our family was traveling to Cincinnati early on a Saturday morning. It was dark and misty outside and the kids were quiet, still waking up. This was a good time to try out the new Sovereign Grace Kids album, The Ology: Ancient Truths Ever New. Soon the kids were wide awake, singing loudly. “I love this music!” my youngest, Sophie, said to me. “It’s so great to sing along to.” The songs are packed with truth and musically creative to make them memorable for kids. If nothing else, get it to hear Bob Kauflin sing “The Scariest Song.” Worth the price of the album.

The Ology is a companion album to a beautiful brand new book of the same name by Marty Machowski. I had a chance to ask my niece about it the other night. She is currently reading the book to her younger sister for their morning devotions. “I love the book,” she told me. “It has beautiful illustrations and it is about God.” If you knew my niece, Caly, you would waste no time buying a book on her recommendation. She is one of the godliest kids I know. So there you have it. The kids give two thumbs up for these two excellent new resources.

“The Ology” my daughter Tori repeated the title to me as we were (once again) listening to the album in the car. “Get it, Mom?” she asked.

“Yes” I smiled, “I get it.”

You should get it too.

Oct 22

The Good Kind of Comparison

2015 at 8:31 am   |   by Carolyn Mahaney Filed under Biblical Womanhood | Beauty

We see them when we walk into a room or stroll through a crowd: the women who are prettier than we are. They are everywhere, aren’t they?

Women have special powers of observation that enable us to instantly spot a woman with a prettier face, a more attractive figure, cuter clothes, or more of a flair for style than we do. We tend to rank everyone we meet on our own private beauty scale—placing them somewhere above or below ourselves.

Comparison is a common trap for women, and it can quickly turn into complaining. I wish I had a gorgeous head of hair like she does. I wish I were as skinny as her. She always wears such attractive clothes. I wish I could afford to dress like that. If only I were tall like her. If only I had her pretty face. Obsessive comparing and complaining leads to envy, and envy, as we know, makes us bitterly unhappy.

Why are we so unhappy that we don’t have so-and-so’s figure or that other girl’s face? It is most likely because we want the attention she receives for ourselves.

Instead, we must repent and choose to trust God. We must recall that it is God has decided what we look like and what every other woman looks like too. When we remember that He has ordained our beauty “lot” we can receive it as truly pleasant (Ps. 16:5–6). We can cease stressing, striving, and comparing.

In 1 Peter 3, God teaches us to trust him by giving us a different group of women to look at. Instead of picking out the prettiest girls in the room and marking them for resentment, we are to look to the godliest women:
These are the heroines, the company of holy women of the past who trusted in God. Instead of comparing our physical appearance to other women, we should be measuring our hidden beauty next to these women, and striving to be like them.

For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening (1 Peter 3:5–6).

Here’s the good news: while most of us will never be the prettiest girl in the room, we can, by the grace of God, become like these holy women. When we cast off comparison and clothe ourselves with a gentle and quiet spirit, we can become beautiful children of Sarah.

Page 8 of 356 pages ‹ First  < 6 7 8 9 10 >  Last ›