Book Review: Feminine Appeal

Seven Virtues of A Godly Wife and Mother by Carolyn Mahaney

Feminine Appeal is based around what Carolyn Mahaney calls the seven feminine virtues listed for us in Titus 2:3-5: Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Mahaney breaks each characteristic in the verse into a chapter of it's own to discuss ways to cultivate it--loving one's husband, loving one's children, being self-controlled, being pure, working at home, being kind, and being submissive to one's husband. Mahaney carries out the command in the first part of the quoted passage: that older women teach younger women how to behave in a way that promotes the gospel by showing how it transforms lives - - through this book.

But why would a divorced mother be reading a book pertaining to the seven virtues of a godly woman and mother? First, as a mother of teenagers I still have much to learn and improve. Secondly, I am an older women that is to teach younger women how to live a life that promotes the gospel. Thirdly, I doubt I ever remarry but if it is God's will I want to be a godly wife the next time around.

This was an excellent book that will be helpful for both young women looking to live out their faith in their lives, and for older women who want to take up the challenge to provide both good teaching and good example to younger women.