The Fruitful Wife

As you know, I like to keep certain things private on this public blog. I don't share my last name or the suburb in which I live. But I do share the name of my church and very sparsely, I share about where I work.

This is no exception. I'm so excited about the books we're publishing this month, that I just can't keep quiet about it!

I was heavily involved in the editing and typesetting of The Fruitful Wife, so I admit that one is my top favorite. I read it fully a little over a month ago as we wrapped it up to send it off to the printer. It was sooo nice to have it in my hands yesterday after it was delivered to our warehouse. I fell in love with this book the moment I started reading it. It is hands down my favorite book that I've read for wives since The Power of a Praying Wife. 

If you're a wife, trust me, you want this book! Real, open, blunt, honest, gripping, and impactful. A great reminder to us all of what it takes to incorporate the fruit of the Spirit into our daily lives. It's a gift to women striving for working to be more like Christ while also still really living. But it's not just a book for women. It's specifically targeted to wives. Not trying to leave others out, but Hayley had a specific message meant just for us wives.


Here's a description of The Fruitful Wife from our website:

Are you loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, 

kind, good, faithful, gentle, AND self-controlled?

Most of the time? Sometimes? How about when life gets hard or marriage gets tough?

Whatever your answer may be, the good news is that you are not alone.

Best-selling author, mother, and wife Hayley DiMarco understands the challenges we all face and answers the question at hand: How can you be the woman God is calling you to be, a woman who bears the fruit of the Spirit in your marriage and in the daily grind of life?

To help you grow, Hayley explores the biblical significance of all 9 fruits of the Spirit, explaining how each fruit first begins to grow and then how each impacts your day-to-day life and marriage. She writes like a wise friend and is readily transparent about her own failures to be spiritually fruitful as well as her relational struggles for control, authority, and respect. Ultimately, Hayley teaches us how even the rockiest of marriages can blossom and generate the fruit God intends to produce.

And here's one of my favorite quotes from the book:

The joyless life can come from a sense that life is out of control. For a lot of us, control is our number one desire. We covet it, and when we feel it is slipping or has slipped away, we panic, and joy is the furthest thing from our minds. Many women suffer from anorexia, bulimia, and even cutting, all of which most often point to their feeling of being out of control and to their deep desire to regain it. When we have little say over our lives, when others control us or our environment, we can easily lose our sense of joy. But when we can see the fingerprints of God on our life, when we can trust him with even the badness that comes to us, then we can let go of the need to control our lives.

 

“The sense that we have our lives under control is, in reality, only an illusion, because God’s Word confirms that “the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Prov. 16:9). To imagine that if it weren’t for so-and-so or such-and-such, life would be different and we would be in control, is deception. “He does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Dan 4:35). “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” is more than a prayer; it’s a reality (see Isa. 46:10). As a child of God you must know that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus (see Matt. 28:18). And this means that your life is never out of control but under the control of your Savior, the one who died that you might live. This is where your joy is found.

~ Hayley DiMarco, The Fruitful Wife [(c) Crossway, Sept 2012]

Get a copy for yourself now. I seriously recommend it!