mothers Archives - Notes From the Parsonage

ESV Women’s Study Bible Review

notesfromtheparsonage — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 15:45:45 +0000

Let’s take a look at the ESV Women’s Study Bible and find out if it is the right choice for you.

Crossway sent me the ESV Women’s Study beautiful Bible to review. I’m usually not a “women’s Bible” kind of gal (with the exception of the She Reads Truth Bible), so I was pretty surprised to love this study Bible. The ESV Women’s Study Bible comes in a slipcase box.

Can we start with this beautiful cover? It is absolutely magnificent. This cover is the Genuine Leather in British Tan. Crossway needs to make this a regular cover option. It is such a beautiful shade of brown. And it feels so nice and luxurious. There are a few other cover options, as well. You can get the leather-look deep brown, leather-look teal, teal cloth board (probably my second favorite option), and hardcover. It has gilded pages and spine. The artwork on the cover and throughout the Bible is the same as the ESV Illuminated Bible by artist Dana Tanamachi. It is simply gorgeous. It makes you want to spend time with this Bible.

The actual Bible pages are rather thin. I couldn’t find information on the actual paper, but it tends to stick together a little more than the ESV Study Bible paper. I tabbed this Bible (with Salt and Charm Bible tabs) and the pages were noticeably thinner and the gilding was a little stuck together. It wasn’t a big deal and fixes itself as you use the Bible. (Once you get the pages are unstuck, they don’t restick together.) It also only has one ribbon bookmark, which is such a bummer since they went with such luxurious options on the Bible as a whole. (A Bible should definitely have at least 4 ribbons, in my opinion.)

Let’s look at the features!

The Women’s Study Bible features a double column style with footnotes and additional devotional readings. These are not fluffy footnotes. These are good, scholarly footnotes. Each book of the Bible has an illustrated title page from the ESV Illuminated Bible. It also has a full book intro. It is like the ESV Illuminated Bible and the ESV Study Bible had a beautiful baby. The intros include maps, diagrams, key places and people, key themes, historical background and an outline. They are extremely helpful in your Bible study give quite a bit of context to what you’re reading.

This Bible also includes beautiful gilded Bible artwork inside the Bible. The artwork is from the ESV Illuminated Bible and are by artist Dana Tanamachi. They’re beautiful.

There is a hefty “Articles and Resources” section at the back of this Bible. It has a plan of salvation, articles about theological concepts, and more. The focus of this Bible, unlike other women’s Bibles, is not on motherhood. The focus is on God. The layout and theme just appeal more to women. There are articles about singleness, motherhood, raising children, adoption, caring for children with disabilities, eating disorders, and more. The articles in this Women’s Study Bible cover a variety of circumstances a woman may find herself in. It also contains a reading plan, a glossary, a concordance, and some full color maps.

Do I recommend the ESV Women’s Study Bible?

Now, I personally do prefer the ESV Personal Size Study Bible for my own personal Bible study. But this one is really great, too. It is really personal preference on if you want all the fancy gold and such or if you prefer a more simple Bible. The Personal Size Study Bible is also a bit more narrow and a bit thicker. I think my preference is one of size. This Bible measures 6.25″x9″– which I kind of feel like is a standard sized Bible.

Absolutely! This is a lovely Bible. It would make a fantastic gift for you mom, wife, best friend, whomever. It is beautiful and has so many study helps.

Good Enough Parenting

notesfromtheparsonage — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 19:05:52 +0000

If you follow me, you’ll know that I have made the foolhardy decision to go back to school. Because, you know, homeschooling seven kids and being in full-time ministry isn’t enough on a person. I clearly lacked the pressure of deadlines and lamenting over formatting issues in the wee hours of the morning in case my toddler isn’t keeping me up enough. Smack dab in the middle of my struggle to be everything to everyone, I get to take a lifespan development class. Now, I was really not looking forward to knowing all the ways I was currently messing up my kids’ lives. I’d really rather just keep my head down and get through this degree program.

And right on schedule, as I dove into lifespan development for the third time (I’ve had lifespan development classes before from other perspectives), I was ready to feel bad about the stress I am putting my family under right now. At first, I got that— the guilt. Infants rely on the steady care of a single caregiver and are upset when that is disrupted. Sorry Daisy. Preschoolers need adequate scaffolding to help them acquire new and deeper skills. Sorry Pippin, can’t scaffold for you, Mama’s got to write a paper about it instead. School aged children need security and patience with close monitoring as they learn new skills and begin to see themselves as others see them. Sorry Topher and Ransom, I don’t have time to monitor your mud pit fun, I’ve got papers to write. You get the idea. Everything is a slap in the face when you feel like you’re messing everything up— especially when you’re a mom of seven in school full time.

Then I came across the work of Donald Winnicott. He was an English pediatrician and psychoanalyst who voiced the idea of the “good enough” parent. I’m going to be grossly simplifying his work and pretty much just talking about a singular aspect. I’m imagining that if you were especially fond of psychoanalytic theory of infant development, you’d likely be taking the class I’m taking or reading a much longer book about the topic. (And just as a point of interest, the class ended up being extremely interesting and insightful. I feel like I only scratched the surface and would need another year to follow all the little rabbit trails my brain made.) For Winnicott, children didn’t need perfect parents. Children needed someone they could count on, but that someone didn’t have to be perfect all the time, they just had to be good enough. They just had to show up, love the kid, and do their best. Winnicott said that was the best kind of parent.

In today’s “perfect parenting” world, where parents feel judged every time they turn around, a world where parents spend so much time comparing their own parenting (and life) to what they see on Instagram, it is a breath of fresh air to read an expert tell us we only need to be “good enough”. The idea that everything bad that happens to our kid will be our fault is never flipped. If I’m responsible for all wrong roads my child may take, I’m also responsible for the right ones. And really, according to Winnicott, if I show up and do my best, my kids will turn out fine. Winnicott realized something our society won’t mention. Moms are people. They come with their own burdens, insecurities, and issues. Learning to be there for a child while still being a real person isn’t the easiest task for some people. And if you’re showing up, trying your best, and meeting the kid’s needs most of the time— you’re doing a good enough job of it. Not all of us can be Instagram perfect. We can’t have the perfect house with everything in various shades of white and grey. (How do you people keep white couches clean with kids?!) We can’t all be stay at home moms with endless budgets for all the kids enrichment activities and the “right” toys, clothes, and baby gear. We can’t all have all organic everything from the local farmer’s market. Life is messy. Life isn’t always ideal. The good news, according to Winnicott, is that we don’t need all those things. We need to pay attention most of the time. We need to provide security most of the time. We need need to learn to sacrifice, but it is okay for life to not be all sacrifice. We won’t get the mothering thing right every single time. The good enough mom knows this and can give herself some grace, learn from her mistakes, and move on.

So if I have to delegate some schooling tasks to Dad for the next year, that is okay. If afternoon reading time has to be audible books, that is okay. If my cooking slips to eating PB&J a little too often, they will survive. If I’m not sewing them cute clothes and instead slipping them into hand-me-downs, I doubt they’ll notice. I’m here. I’m doing my best. The kids will be alright, I’m good enough.