You are the Queen of Your Home! (A Giveaway!)

By Natalie, Editress of Visionary Womanhood

How often do you read a book and find yourself highlighting things on almost every page? I try to read while I’m walking on my elliptical machine, but I couldn’t multi-task in that way with the book I’m reviewing for you today. Why? I had to keep stopping to grab my highlighter pen. After a couple of days, I realized this is a book I have to just sit and soak in for a few minutes each day.

So that’s what I did. I made it part of a little siesta time in the afternoon where I could get a drink, sit down for five minutes, and get some supercharged vision and motivation into my tank. This book is laid out in such a way as to make that simple. Packed with poems, vignettes, essays, and famous quotes encompassing the topic of the kingdom under our roof, Queen of the Home will leave you feeling utterly refreshed and rejuvenated for the task.

One of the special things about this book is that everything relates back to the theme of our queenliness. It’s a lovely vision to strive for. I think when we see ourselves as queens, we will rise to that vision. If we see ourselves as slaves, we will stoop to those kinds of negative impressions and attitudes.  Jennie Chancey puts it well:

First of all, the home is a tiny world – a cosmos all to itself. Do you want to rule the world? God has given you the entire universe of your home to manage and “subdue.” You as the “despot” of the home (this is the original Greek word for “keeper at home”) are in truth the ruler of this domain. You are the queen. Your job is to make your kingdom a small picture of God’s greater kingdom – a kingdom in which the subjects are in order and obey their king; a kingdom that welcomes friends and strangers with abundant hospitality and gracious care. Do you find our current culture disgusting and revolting? Look around at the homes that make up our culture. There is the root of the problem. Homes that are emptied of their meaning and purpose create the culture in which we live. When homes do not have creative, happy, intelligent mothers, their occupants go elsewhere to learn how to behave, to learn what music to love, to learn what art to imitate. Are you building culture in your home? Are you training your children to be the image-bearers of God in this world? This is your calling.

And I love this poem:

In an old church-yard stood a stone

Weather-marked and stained;

The hand of time had crumbled it,

So only part remained

Upon one side I could just trace

“In memory of our mother;”

An epitaph which spoke of home

Was chiseled on the other.

I’ve gazed on monuments of fame,

High towering to the skies;

I’ve seen the sculptured marble stone

Where a great hero lies;

But by this epitaph I paused

And read it o’er and o’er,

For I had never seen inscribed

Such words as these before.

“She always made home happy.” What

A noble record left;

A legacy of memory sweet

To those she loved bereft;

And what a testimony given

By those who knew her best,

Engraven on this plain rude stone

That marked their mother’s rest.

So then was stilled her weary heart,

Folded her hands so white,

And she was carried from the home

She’d always made so bright.

Her children raised a monument

That money could not buy,

As witness of a noble life,

Whose record is on high.

A noble life, but written not

In any book of fame;

Among the list of noted ones

None ever saw her name;

For only her own household knew

The victories she had won,

And none but they could testify

How well her work was done.

Author Unknown

Read the First Chapter Free!

Jennifer McBride, the gracious lady who compiled and edited the readings in this book, has a link on her blog, Noble Womanhood, where you can download the first chapter FREE.  Do it!  It will whet your appetite for the rest of this delicious book.

A Giveaway!

This little hardcover book would make a wonderful gift for a new bride, a new mother (or even an old one!), or an older daughter preparing for a kingdom of her own one day.  I could think of so many ladies this book would bless.

And now you have a chance to win a copy for FREE! We’re going to do this the old fashioned way and leave comments.  Each comment is counted as an entry.  Here’s how you can enter:

1. We want to get to know our readers! Tell us a little bit about yourself and how long you’ve been a reader here at Visionary Womanhood.  (We’d love to know how you found us too!)

2. “Like” us on Facebook if you haven’t already, and then leave a comment saying you did! (And if you already “like” us – leave a comment saying so!)

3. Tell us how you would use this book if you won it.  Would you devour it yourself?  Is there someone you would love to give it to? Leaving a comment will give you a third entry!

Please note: if you are reading this in an email, you’ll need to click through to the blog to leave comments.  Replying to the email will not count as an entry. 

May the Lord enable each one of us to be gracious queens of our domains, rising to His noble calling on our lives; a calling that has potential to reap above and beyond anything we could ever hope or dream or even imagine.