Waiting for the right man? If you are like most young ladies, you are waiting for the right man, the right career, the right time to become who they are truly meant to be. But God wants you to become the right young lady. He wants to gently mold your willing heart into the lovely young lady He wants you to be. The Lord wants you to become a young lady with a soft heart toward God; devotion and love toward Him; peace in God s plan for you; patience as He prepares your future; purity of heart in every way. It is true that becoming the right young lady is the best first step of becoming a woman who is truly happy and fulfilled.
I picked up this book for free on my Kindle and was interested in reading it, as I have read Lady in Waiting: Becoming God's Best While Waiting for Mr. Right several times. I was curious to see if the book was written more tactfully for a younger audience. As best I can tell, it is the exact same book, just in a different binding, and "Lady in Waiting" references replaced with "Young Lady in Waiting." That was slightly disappointing. I still would not recommend it for conservative readers under sixteen, though it would be a great resource for young ladies who have had no Biblical direction about dating and relationships.
This time reading through, it kind of struck me what a poor picture it puts on men. I mean, I realize that the average man is not overly concerned about Christ and all, but it really paints a poor picture--like there are almost no godly men out there. Maybe it is because I live in the South. From reading this, though, I can see how a girl can become paranoid about getting into a deeper friendship with any guy. Just my thoughts here.
a) For my research, I purchased both "Young Lady in Waiting" and "Lady in Waiting" assuming this "young" version would be directed toward adolescent girls as opposed to adult or even young adult women. But from what I can tell, "Young Lady in Waiting" is literally the same text as "Lady in Waiting" with a pink cover and pocket-sized shape. While hypothetically written to "young" readers, the text references the fact that the reader may be a divorcee or in their 40's. How is that different than just plain "Lady in Waiting"? is there somewhere "a Teeny Tiny Lady in Waiting" book I need to refer to?
b) Shockingly, despite the fact that the book patronizes its readers (however young or old they may be) with trite devotional questions and horrifically simplified life application examples, the advice---wait for it---is not tremendously terrible. It's incomplete and over-generalized, but in the sea of Christian publishing geared towards women's participation in male/female relationships, this may be the least offensive I've found. I don't like the medium AT ALL, but much of the message appears more helpful than detrimental, even if it is grossly over-simplified.
*******Update************* Okay, I take that all back. I think my original "it's not the worst there is" response was because I wrote much less in the margins than in the other books I'm reading in this genre. But less notes does not equal less dysfunction. As I type up my notes from the book, I'm seeing more clearly the theme of disconnecting women/girls from their physical selves, particularly their experience of pleasure. The assumption (and sometimes explicit message) is that physical expression of sensuality or sexuality will automatically mean loss of relationship/intimacy with the guy you want to be closer to- thus playing into the paradigm of women only understanding their bodies and sexuality as something they give over to men because men want it- but that it will mean a loss of self. You give sex to men because they want it (and you as a woman will never want it except as a way to keep a man interested in you) but sex is scary because you lose intimacy even as you give it. This is the message the book conveys about premarital sex, but if girls follow the book's logic (as the patronizingly persuasive text is designed to make you do) then girls will fear sex in marriage as loss of friendship just as they've been told about before marriage.
I'm not advocating that books should teach girls to chase after sexual experiences before marriage, but I definitely don't want girls in my life to be taught that their sexuality belongs to men and comes at the cost of their relational self.
Im giving this book a five. Oh yeah. Such an educative book it is. I've always been saying there's beauty in waiting and this book proves it so. I loved the fact that the author threw more insight ON the woman who anointed Jesus's feet with expensive fragrances...luke 7..she said something that caught my attention and made me continue to read; a woman is not one who's married with kids nor one who's single but rather one who becomes what God wants her to be. take your alabaster box single woman to Jesus's feet, honor him with your single life respond to your heavenly bridegroom in such a manner and wait to see if God will also not honor you with an earthly bridegroom. Nice right.
I loved this book! It came at a time that I needed it most. After I read it, I felt calmed and my trust in God strengthened tremendously.
The authors don't promise that you will get married. They really emphasized that if it is in God's will for you to marry, you will. He will bring around the right guy at the right time. We need to rely on Him and trust Him completely with that.
I recommend this book to all my single friends (young and old!)