This piece was written for the September issue of the Lee Creek Baptist Church newsletter, Grace & Peace.
If you were to take a look at my living room end table, you’d find a stack of books with coupons and slips of paper tucked in them halfway through. This is because I have an old habit of not finishing books I start.
Over the years, I’ve learned to feel a little less guilty about this. Reading is a discipline. But I’ve also realized that books are a lot like houses. Some are meant to be lived in, some are good to revisit again and again, and some, you’ll only stop by once. You may only stand on the front porch. It’s okay to read a few pages out of relevant chapters, then put a book back on the shelf.
“Visit many good books,” Charles Spurgeon said, “but live in the Bible.”
When it comes to reading habits, Scripture is the only book we should feel a true sense of guilt for neglecting, because only Christ has the words of eternal life (Jn. 6:68).
And yet, outside Scripture’s sufficient bounty, God lets us reap the edges of the field of wisdom through authors He’s gifted. “Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding” (Pr. 14:33). God used ordinary men to write His holy and inspired Word, and He is still using ordinary authors to help other believers comprehend the height, breadth, and depth of His truth.
Sisters in Christ, we need to be moving in and setting up house in the Scriptures. We also need to visit good, deep, biblical books that fashion our minds into a Christlike shape. It just isn’t true to think that, by not reading much or often, we’re not consuming anything. Every day, the world tries to sweep us off our feet in its riptide of news, reels, blurbs, and takes.
A godly woman will make her home in God’s Word and surround herself with good neighbors—Christian voices found in good books.
Here are just a handful of books that have encouraged me in recent years toward Christlikeness, and that might make good neighbors to you too:
Book Recommendations
for Christian Women:
On Biblical Womanhood & Marriage:
- Eve in Exile by Rebekah Merkle
- The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace
- My Dear Hemlock by Tilly Dillehay
- Homemaking Matters by Marci Ferrell
- Marriage by Paul Tripp
- How to Build a Godly Marriage by Joel & Mary Beeke
On the Christian Life & Local Church:
- The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs
- The Valley of Vision by Various Authors
- Everyday Gospel by Paul Tripp
- The Church by Mark Dever
- Redemption Song by Sean Demars
On Suffering & Hope:
- God’s Grace In Your Suffering by David Powlison
- Grief by Bob Kelleman
- Suffering is Never for Nothing by Elisabeth Elliot
- The Loveliness of Christ by Samuel Rutherford
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