\u00a0\u201cIf you\u2019re not willing to give your heart to your father, this book will put you at odds with the scriptural mandate you will find here\u201d (6).<\/em><\/p>\nDon\u2019t say you haven\u2019t been warned!<\/p>\n
Interestingly, I didn\u2019t realize that this book was written when Anna Sofia and Elizabeth were 17 and 15 years old. Since they are so young they freely admit,\u00a0\u201cWe write this book as a candid examination of our times and the issues facing us\u2026.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>And\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re not authorities. We\u2019re teenagers\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(3).<\/p>\nAnd yet, let\u2019s face it, Vision Forum certainly isn\u2019t MARKETING it as a \u201ccandid\u201d examination!\u00a0\u201cWithin the pages of this book, discover practical, biblical solutions for the young woman who wants to do so much more than just \u201csurvive\u201d in a savagely feministic, anti-Christian culture. Find the answers a girl is not likely to get from her church, her peers, or her culture.\u201c<\/em>\u00a0I don\u2019t know about you, but I think they may have left out a small detail about the advice being given by two teenagers.<\/p>\nThe Botkin sisters spend the first chapter giving a general introduction to the problems they see with current society and an overview of what they hope to accomplish in this book. In other words, despite the fact that they\u2019re so young, they\u2019re offering advice about what girls older than them should be doing with their lives.<\/p>\n
In their youth, the Botkin sister\u2019s parents ministered to college students, and it was in these settings that the Botkin sisters made their first \u201creal friends\u201d outside of their \u201cfamily circle.\u201d (They didn\u2019t have any friends their own age? Why is this not surprising?) From these college girls, the Botkin sisters observed that many of them came from broken homes and didn\u2019t know what \u201ctrue love\u201d was.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cWhat they all seemed to want more than anything else was truth, safety, purpose, and faithful male companionship and protection\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(4).<\/p>\nThen the Botkin sisters put on their rose-colored glasses: society was so much better for women in the past, and we need to go back to the patriarchal system of how it was done. Because today\u00a0 girls are spiritually and emotionally abandoned to day cares, and have to learn to fend for themselves, and the evils of feminism, crime rates, promiscuity, abortion, and homosexuality. Because girls don\u2019t submit or have good relationships with their fathers\u2026. Death! Crime! Bad scary things!<\/p>\n
The Botkin sisters present around 12 stories to set up their argument that leaving home and pursuing a higher education undoubtedly results in depression, dissatisfaction with life, and\/or a sinful lifestyle. They conclude that the problems in these girls\u2019 lives are because they didn\u2019t follow God\u2019s design (staying at home under a father\u2019s protection).<\/p>\n
Here are two of the stories:<\/p>\n
\u201cAmy was 23 years old and ready to start a life on her own, when suddenly her mother was diagnosed with cancer and died seven months later. Before she died, Amy\u2019s mother asked Amy to take care of her nine younger brothers and sisters, the youngest just a year old. Amy\u2019s struggles in coping with this devastating turn of events, and adjusting to her new role of surrogate mother and lady of the house, have required strength and grace she never could have found in feminist solutions. She also found that she needed her father even more than he needed her\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(10).<\/p>\n(I\u2019ll get into the creepy father-daughter vibe later on in this series).<\/p>\n
\u201cFiona was intelligent and had a fiercely independent spirit\u2014the key ingredients to being successful women by our generation\u2019s standards. At age eighteen she left home to pursue higher education and launched herself into a life of independence. She describes it as a life of grief and depression. After five years of unhappiness, becoming increasingly distressed that she didn\u2019t know how God wanted her to use her life, Fiona repented\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(11).<\/p>\nWhile I plan to dissect these beliefs throughout the whole series, I just want to mention that what the girls in the stories fail to take into consideration is the fact that it\u2019s perfectly normal to experience these feelings when you\u2019re first out on your own and trying to simply figure out life.\u00a0 I think most people would describe their 20s as a time of great uncertainty, change, and soul-searching, but also a rewarding time of adventure, new experiences, and self-discovery. Because the Botkin sisters can\u2019t allow for this option (you mean it\u2019s normal to have ups and downs in life and that\u2019s not just because you\u2019re not \u201cunder your father\u2019s protection?\u201d) they can only conclude that the girls have started adapting the \u201cways of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or perhaps, in Fiona\u2019s case, it wasn\u2019t because she was independent and pursuing a higher education\u2014maybe she lacked friends and a healthy social life. Maybe she didn\u2019t love what she was learning. Maybe rather than being a sign that she needed to \u201crepent\u201d it was a sign that she needed to change her degree or see a counselor.<\/p>\n
The Botkin sisters don\u2019t notice any of these options, however. For them, it all comes down to submission and giving your heart to your father\u2014or else bad scary things will happen to you.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Guest Post by Kate.<\/i> (Well, I think you probably shouldn\u2019t read this book if you have problems with high blood pressure and\/or are prone to throwing books across the room). The Botkins advice to readers is a little different: \u201cDon\u2019t read this book at all\u2026if you have a bad attitude toward your father and if you are trying to keep your distance from him. Many girls enjoy having \u2018space\u2019 away from their fathers. That space is dangerous. This book is about protection\u201d (6).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,57],"tags":[350],"class_list":["post-16244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-patriarchy","category-quiverfull","tag-so-much-more"],"yoast_head":"\nSMM: Chapter 1---Who Should Read This Book<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Guest Post by Kate. (Well, I think you probably shouldn\u2019t read this book if you have problems with high blood pressure and\/or are prone to throwing books across the room). The Botkins advice to readers is a little different: \u201cDon\u2019t read this book at all\u2026if you have a bad attitude toward your father and if you are trying to keep your distance from him. Many girls enjoy having \u2018space\u2019 away from their fathers. That space is dangerous. 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That space is dangerous. 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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2013\/07\/fragonard-a-young-woman-reading-1776.jpg\" "\\"fragonard-a-young-woman-reading-1776\\"")
<\/a>A Guest Post by Kate<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n