Bloom-Blog Review

Introducing the Bloom! Book Club!

This week we're thrilled to announce a new feature here on Bloom!: the Book Club! We'll be starting it in January, but I'm introducing it now because we are going to give you, our readers, the vote on which should be Bloom!'s very first book club book. We'll be posting reviews of three books over the course of this week, and at the end of the week I'll post a poll on our blog so you can vote for your favorite. Ready?

The first book is Emotional Purity, by Heather Paulsen. This book addresses a unique aspect of purity that is rarely thought of today, and the topic of emotional purity is especially applicable to us as young women. Every true Christian knows about physical purity. The message is pounded in us, it sometimes seems, from all angles. But no one ever talks about emotional purity. We already know that we are, by design, naturally more emotional than men. We want to connect with others on the emotional level, and there is nothing wrong with wanting that emotional intimacy. The difficulty comes when, in this emotional free-for-all world, we trade intimacies without commitment. Hearts get broken, precious things get ruthlessly trampled. Isn't there another way to protect us from such emotional scars?

And that, my friends, is where this book comes in. The chapters cover a variety of topics, from the expected "Guarding Your Heart" and "Dating Done Differently" to "Trusting in God", "Creating Safe Ideals", and "Understanding Your Expectations." It opens with a story that might ring true for many of us: the fictional account of Tracy and Mike, two Christian singles who connect, build what looks like a promising relationship, and share hopes and dreams. And then, Tracy is left suddenly crushed when Mike suddenly shows up with a girlfriend. She gave herself completely away to him emotionally, and now is left again with a broken heart.

Paulsen astutely points out several things that prove just how precious - and dangerous - emotional intimacy can be for women. While women can grapple with lust in the traditional sense of the word, we've also created our own unique brand. Pornography, for us, can be the emotional fantasizing about so-and-so. We can be emotionally married in our minds in half a second, and waste time with our daydreams and imaginings about life with whoever happens to be our current fantasy. And so we must seek to fight against these dangers.

But one thing I most appreciate about this book is that it does not just act as a warning sign. In fact, it doesn't do that at all. Instead, Paulsen also describes the beauty of saving your emotions for your husband, and the beautiful marriage that comes out of that. If you've taken some of the special emotional intimacy meant for your marriage away, and connected with several other guys, suddenly your marriage isn't as special as it could have been. Writing with humility, and out her own experience and mistakes, Heather Paulsen encourages us to take a different route, and to consider one aspect of purity that is so often overlooked. And yet, particularly for women, emotions are key, and are precursors to physical purity.

And finally, here's another thought from her book: the Proverbs 31 women does good to her husband all the days of his life, not just after they are married. Think about that.