Andi Ashworth’s Real Love for Real Life is an excellent treatment of the Christian call to hospitality. Subtitled “the Art and Work of Caring,” the book is of particular encouragement to those who are serving as caregivers on a full-time basis. In a world that pushes efficiency, speed and uniformity, Ashworth fights for the personal touch, for giving others our time and energy. Through her wonderful anecdotes, she helps readers to understand the importance giving of ourselves to create beauty and to make others welcome.
Ashworth helps readers to navigate the path of hospitality not entertainment and of true caring and not martyrdom. She doesn’t sugar coat caring or pretend that each day will be wonderful and feel fulfilling. She is also careful not to overwhelm readers and spends time explaining that giving care does not mean always saying yes or seeing yourself as the only one capable of caring. She emphasizes the importance of making room in our busy lives to care for others well.
Real Love for Real Life was a call for me to glorify God in the details, not to impress people but to show them that I love them. It was a reminder that even if I don’t always feel validated or encouraged for what I do as a full-time caregiver, I’m valuable and my work is of tremendous importance. I’d recommend this to any Christian woman, single or married, stay at home or working. It will be a tremendous encouragement to you. (10/10, from the bookshelf thanks to PaperBackSwap.)
That’s my FAVORITE book. And Andi is the real deal too. We’ve seen firsthand that she believes every word that she wrote and practices it on people she knows well and people she’s just meeting. I love her!
So glad you wrote a little review on it. I bought it based on another review and haven’t really gotten into it yet. I’ll make it a more important one on my to read list. :)
I’ve not heard of this. I will check it out–thanks!!
The first few chapters helped me name what it is I’ve been trying to do since I’ve been married. It’s a noble thing for a book to restore dignity to someone’s life, and I felt that’s what it did. I have to admit that I found the later chapters a little too filler-full to be helpful. Why do Christian publishers make their authors crank out 25 chapters when they only need 12? They all do, though. I’m looking forward to hearing her in February.
Su
Susan,
I started the book about a week before they announced she was coming for the women’s retreat, so I was really excited.
I am often disappointed with the later half of non-fiction books, but I’ve wondered if it is because I’ve already experienced the new perspective the author brings and after a while it becomes more familiar and less provocative and earth-shaking? Who knows. It probably could have been a hair shorter.
Thanks for this recommendation. It sounds really like something I need to read soon.