Product Description

Have you struggled to reconcile God's vision of virtuous womanhood with worldly myths that marginalize and mock the role of the homemaker? Do you wrestle with cultural messages that demean the homemaker s calling and exalt instead the emotionally androgynous power-woman---the wife whose worth is measured only by the degree of her self-ambition, the shape of her body, or her money-making skills?

Delightfully fresh and honest, Passionate Housewives Desperate for God debunks the modern 'desperate housewife' myth and provides fresh vision for the homemaker. Hear a former Christian feminist share how she went from a die-hard homemaker-in-training to a dedicated career woman, and then back again---after God gripped her heart. See the hollow counterfeit of whitewashed feminism and me-ology destroyed. And consider the beautiful picture painted in Scripture of the truly fulfilled homemaker who glories in the hopeful calling God created for her.

Pull up a chair, dust off the cookie crumbs, and join Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald as they they lay aside demeaning stereotypes like the 'Stepford wife,' and reveal the 1950s' 'perfect homemaker' trap. Laughter and tears will flow, and hopefully you will be infused with a renewed vision for victory as a wife and mother. Discover what it means to be a passionate housewife 'desperate' for God alone!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13796 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 206 pages

Review
Passionate Housewives Desperate for God is an exceptionally well written book. Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald do not pretend to be the perfect wives, mothers, and homemakers, but they do have a heart for God and His glory. Both of them see the role of the wife and mother as God's high and holy calling, and they exhort us through Scripture and practical examples to, by God's grace, fulfill that calling. This book will make you think, will convict you, and will, as the subtitle states, give you a 'fresh vision for the hopeful homemaker.' I highly recommend this book. --Martha Peace, author of The Excellent Wife

As a mother of eight, I am encouraged to see this book published to help women who desire to walk as passionate servants, who want to 'do the right thing,' and who love the natural yearnings which God created in them. We all have a longing to create, cultivate, and faithfully nurture the gifts God has given us. When the gifts come in the form of family, we would do well to listen to the Biblical wisdom of Stacy and Jennie to counteract the Western culture s strident cry for self-assertion. I gladly recommend this book for all women who want to honor Him and help others (even a two year old!) to glorify Him by dying to self with joy and thanksgiving. He is worthy of our efforts, and these two authors cheer us on to Biblical femininity. --Valerie Shepard, daughter of Elisabeth Elliot

Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald have spoken the Truth with a capital 'T' in their wonderful book Passionate Housewives Desperate for God. Totally grounded in Scripture, this book winsomely presents the true picture of a godly homemaker. Prepare to be stimulated, challenged, and encouraged as a woman. This book is a real gem! --Vickie Farris, wife of HSLDA founder, Michael Farris, Esq.

About the Author
Stacy McDonald
Stacy is the thankful wife of Pastor James McDonald, the contented mother of ten children, and a soon-to-be first-time grandmother. Mrs. McDonald is also author of the life changing book, Raising Maidens of Virtue: A Study of Feminine Loveliness for Mothers and Daughters. She has been blessed with the opportunity to teach women around the globe on issues relating to the roles of a wife and mother, homeschooling, and Christian decorum. Stacy and her husband, along with their children, reside in Central Illinois and operate Family Reformation ministries, dedicated to the reformation of the Christian family.

Jennie Chancey Jennie is the wife of Matthew Chancey and the happy mother of eight children, whom the Chanceys homeschool. When not cramming lots of reading into 'spare' moments, Jennie enjoys playing with her children, sewing, traveling with her family, and contemplating the mysteries of God's amazing universe. Jennie edits LadiesAgainstFeminism.com, a site which brings together writers from all over the world to expose the damaging effects of feminism and celebrate the beauties of biblical womanhood. She also owns the successful home-based Sense & Sensibility Patterns, begun when she was a newlywed to inspire women to embrace their femininity.

Customer Reviews

Reviving for a Discerning Reader
First, let me say I think you should read this book. Buy it, borrow it, or get it from the library if you don't want to pay for it, but it's certainly worth the read. Second, let me say that while I am a stay-at-home mom, I have worked outside the home before kids, and I have 2 not 12 (nor do I think the Lord has 12 in our future). I told my husband while reading the book, "I agree with so much of what they say, just not with some of what I know they mean by what they say." While I have strong disagreements with some of the Vision Forum worldview, and would advise all who read this book not to take it - or any other books from VF or anywhere else - without much discernment, I think that this book encourages a fresh look at what homemaking can hold and shines a light at subtle ways that even biblical-worldview-believers neglect to value things that God values. In my reading, I was challenged many times to go before the Lord about selfishness and pride in my own life. The authors put Scripture throughout all the book, so the Lord was able to draw my attention to His Word and breathe fresh life into some verses through the context of the book. I was instructed, reminded, and challenged to make sure my opinions and convictions were not just ideas I had come up with myself.

I don't have to be perfect??? Thank you!!!!
The sin of alcoholism in my fathers life led to my mother leaving him when I was less than 6 months old. She walked several miles with 3 children under 3 to the nearest phone booth and called my grandfather to come and pick her up. Hours later in a fury, my father followed us to my grandparents house and proceeded to shoot my grandfather five times. Thankfully he survived and we had already been swept away to a far off town where we couldn't be hurt. My father went to jail for attempted murder and my mother divorced him. By the time I was two, my mother had found the perfect man and remarried. He later adopted me when I was in first grade and is the only father I have ever know and loved! He too had been divorced and had three children from his previous marriage. My dad was an honest man who lived up to his responsibilities and a great deal of his paycheck went to pay child support. You can't exactly get child support from a man in prison though and so my mom had to get a job to help pay the bills. My mother worked full time. My father worked full time and a part time job in the evenings cleaning banks, to which he took us with to help out.

I tell you all of this history because it is important for me to tell you I did not have a stay at home mom who taught me all the ins and outs of cooking and cleaning and sewing and taking care of my family. It doesn't mean she didn't love us but she was on such a tight schedule of sneaking in a few hours of sleep between 2 am and 7 am and getting the rest of her daily chores done before having to be at work by 1 p.m. that she didn't have time to teach us. She just had to get it done! My father taught us kids the basics of cleaning and some cooking. I knew how to cook when I got married because I had worked in a restaurant for two years but I was not used to the role of Ms Happy Homemaker. Top that off with marrying into a family where everyone seemed to be in competition to be the best, or enjoyed showing off all their many artistic talents, to which you had nothing to "trump" them with, and it led to feeling pretty downtrodden and worthless. Many times I couldn't even figure out why my husband had liked me, let alone fallen in love with me when there were obviously so many better examples of a perfect housewife and mother all around us. I thought, "How in the world did he end up with me?"

Passionate Housewives Desperate for God is one of the few books I have ever read that helped me lay aside my doubts of self worth as a mother, as a teacher, as a wife. I don't have to be perfect. God doesn't ask that of me. He only asks that I give Him my best and to let Him work that into His best! This books tells me I don't have to give up outward beauty and become a matronly homemaker in order to be beautiful for God but that I can be both beautiful on the inside and the outside. This book tells me I do not have to go about my daily chores as a Stepford wife, living life in a robotic vacuum, but that I can abide safely in the knowledge that I am prized for my individuality, for my insight, for my love and passion for serving God. I do not need to worry that the newly married wife with every perfect hair in place, or the mother of many with her children sitting properly with hands neatly clasped in their lap in church are worth any more to God than what I am worth. God shares His love equally! This book helped me to understand that what is good and helpful for my husband isn't what is good and helpful for another's husband. I need to focus on my husband. I need to focus on my children. I need to focus on my household. Everything else is just a picture show and, while they might give me great ideas, it doesn't necessarily mean all those great ideas work for me.

Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald will keep you interested in reading to the end with the way they tackle all the lies and deceits spread by feminine warriors of the world. Many times in my reading I wondered had they been a fly on my wall living my life along with me. No, they didn't have to be. The lies of perfection have been spread so far and wide within our society that every mom on every corner is shouting "SEND ME SOME ADVICE I CAN USE!!" Jennie and Stacy did just that!!

decent writing, some good ideas
I found this book to be surprisingly well-written, though not persuasively written. There were a lot of nice, pracitical bits of encouragement in here for stay-at-home mothers and wives (such as not beating yourself up if your "quiet time" is hardly quiet and involves feeding the baby, as well). However, the theology comes from a very literal standpoint on Scripture (which I do not hold with), is decidedly anti-feminist, and will certainly not be everyone's cup of tea. If you are a mother of young children and are either interested in this movement within the Church or feel up to separating the wheat from the chaff, give it a go. Personally, I feel that this approach to being a wife and mother is a narrow one and certainly not mandated by God, but I respect that there are women out there who feel differently, and this is a great resource for those women. A word to the wise, the authors do display some radical leaps in logic (for example, that in order to be a sacrificial wife and mother you must never do anything for yourself and that doing so is linked either to sin or an under-developed Christian character; that all mothers who work sacrifice their children to the will of "the state," which they portray as being nearly Communistic; and so forth), so proceed with caution.