Title Tuesday: More for Mom

Welcome to  Title Tuesday, my favorite day of the week! This day is dedicated to book suggestions, news, cartoons, and reviews. I write this portion of my blog because I am a big believer in the motivational speaker Charlie Jones' quote which says, "You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” I try to meet as many new people as possible and to read everything I can. This is my way of sharing that information with you. You can see a visual summary of the books I have reviewed for both adults and children over on my Facebook page. If you are interested in understanding my rating system for books you can read my Book Review Explanation here and What I Believe here. If you want to check out what I am currently reading or what I want to read next, friend me on Goodreads!

As we approach Mother's Day (it is just four weeks away y'all) it is pretty normal for people to rush out and purchase books for moms. I was recently given the opportunity to review More for Mom: Living Your Whole and Holy Life by Kristin Funston and I was thrilled to get a chance to find a new book that could inspire and encourage women raising children. Today I am going to share my thoughts with you.

I have to admit that I am not in love with this book and in fact I had a really had time finishing it.

The first two sections of the book read about like every other Christian book for mothers. God gave you these kids, He will give you rest. Even the moms that seem like they have it all together really don't. You don't need to do more, you need to take care of yourself... and the like.

It is all pretty familiar.

To be completely honest, the book started going downhill for me when I read in the introduction where Funston says that "We're moms after all. We basically run the world". Sorry, nope. Sure, motherhood is busy and difficult (I have three children under 4 years old, I get it!) but the phrase "we run the world" is a feminist mantra that you can hear from the likes of Beyonce and AOC. It is also SUPER disrespectful of the dads involved in the world. I'm not about to let that idea that we moms "run the world" weave its way into my narrative. Words and phrases mean things and we need to be cautious of what it is that we are intentionally or unintentionally endorsing with this catchy little phrases.

The thing that solidified my poor opinion of this book was in the middle. I so desperately wanted to revel in the chapter called "Come Alive". That portion of the book alone is almost enough to have me give the book an A review. The thing that held me back from loving it is Funston talked more about coming alive meaning you can go on vacation once or twice a year and retire comfortably (Funston 121). I am constantly saying that it isn't enough to just survive, but that is because I believe that everything that we have should go towards telling people about God's love and training them to tell others. Our salvation wasn't paid for so that we could retire comfortably.

Overall, I would say this book is a mediocre B. It isn't dangerous to theology or to morals so it doesn't warrant a C rating. But it is familiar and somewhat lackluster. This book won't inspire change, but rather it read like a bunch of mini motivational blog posts put in one book. The portions of it that are off putting to me wouldn't be off putting to most people. I am hyper focused on living for Jesus, not just quoting scripture. I wouldn't rush out and purchase this book for Mother's Day.