Captivating
by John & Stasi Eldredge

Captivating - attractive, bewitching, enchanting, enthralling, entrancing, fascinating.

According to this book, this is how God intended us to be. I don't know about you, but I grew up going to a Baptist church and not once, did anyone ever tell me that God meant for me, Christy, to be Captivating.
I think, given the importance of this book and it's message, that I'll have to reread it. I didn't realize when I chose it, based on our Audio Editor Debbie's suggestion, that I would need more time to let all of what's encompassed here sink in.

Jon and Stasi certainly hit the mark when addressing how a woman feels. At least, with me they do. And I think they would with you as well. Regardless of who we are, how we grew up, there seems to be an innate sense of being "less than" at some point in our lives. A boyfriend leaves you for someone else, or for no reason at all. A friend suddenly decides they don't want to be your friend, or worse, they just begin making fun of you with no explanation. You don't get that dream job you wanted and thought was a shoe in. At some point, I believe all of us have felt this feeling.

But, according to Captivating, we can work past this. If we realize that God intended us to be ...captivating. And that is where my need to reread this book comes in. My human mind still has a hard time grasping that God, the creator of all the heavens and earth, thought about me, Christy, and made me to be captivating. I've tried to be, that's for sure. By being smart, striving for the better job, trying to be the best girlfriend someone else has ever had. By being funny or in some cases, loud to catch the attention of others. But those ways, my ways, don't work.

I think that every woman should at least read this book if for no other reason, than the affirmation of what God intended us to be when he created Eve. That intention did not change after the original sin. God still wants us to love him and realize how we are loved by him. And no woman should settle for less than being what God intended us to be. I think one of my favorite analogies in this book is to the scene near the end of the King and I. The King is asking Anna to dance by exteding his had to her. He is not concerned with anyone else in the room at that point. He tells her that he is King and he will lead. This is one of my favorite movies of all time and to imagine that scene with myself and Jesus, rather than the King and Anna, makes me feel captivating!