Feminine Appeal: Nine Years Later
Filed under {!-- ra:000000005130c030000000005fc0acf5 --}{if 'Feminine Appeal: Nine Years Later' == '52home' && category_name == '52home'} Biblical Womanhood {if:else} Biblical Womanhood {/if}I’ll never forget the year Feminine Appeal was published. Mom delivered the completed manuscript to Crossway on February 19th of 2003, and two days later my oldest son Jack was born. Three days after his birth my colon ruptured and I had emergency surgery to save my life. Mom spent the next four months living out the message of her book under intensely trying circumstances.
Mom stayed at the hospital with us—all day, every day—and she and Steve took turns sleeping on the horrible chair by my bed. When I was discharged, Mom moved our little family into her home and she and Dad gave up their bedroom so that she could care for me and Jack ‘round the clock, making it possible for Steve to finally return to work. Mom woke up for midnight feedings with Jack, force-fed me three meals a day in bed, drove me to and from physical therapy (forty-five minutes away, several days a week), performed nursing duties too gross to mention here, and pointed me back to Christ and His Word when I was scared, post-partum, and in lots of pain. In the midst of all this, she planned Janelle’s wedding which took place on Mom’s birthday that year, June 1. Two days after Janelle got married I had a second surgery, and Mom started the whole process over again.
Now you understand why I’ll never forget that year.
My mom’s care for my family was nothing short of heroic, but it wasn’t out of the ordinary. She simply did what she had been doing faithfully for the past twenty-five years: serving God by putting her family before herself. I know she’ll be uncomfortable with me saying this, but you can open up to any page in Feminine Appeal and I can tell you a story of how Mom has lived out that portion of teaching from Titus 2.
Jack turned nine this year. And so did Feminine Appeal. Jack is healthy and strong, loves reading and baseball. And Feminine Appeal has changed the lives of countless women around the world.
This year, Feminine Appeal also has a newly redesigned cover. Same great TItus 2 message. Same wonderful author. Same reminder to me of God’s amazing mercy to me through my mom.
Thanks again Mom, for everything.