My So-Called Life as a Proverbs 31 Wife: A One-Year Experiment...and Its Surprising Results Paperback – September 1, 2011

This was such a great read and a good perspective

Entertaining, humbling and finally, envigorating. This book transformed my view of being a SAHM from one of less worth, days of boredom and the selfish pursuit of 'what makes ME happy' to one of high value, lifelong impact and being an important, quality contributing team-member to the family unit.Instead of dragging myself down thinking my contributions as a SAHM were 'not much' and that if 'I'm' not happy nobody else can be happy, by the end of this book I somehow started to feel that even the act of cooking (something I don't particularly enjoy) is a blessing to my husband and kids and hence, a source of true happiness & satisfaction. Ditto for all other homemaking chores (and it's perfectly okay to not like/avoid some of them).After coming from books that taught me that the path to happiness is all about 'me,myself and I' this book showed me instead that being a SAHM is about the important role I play and what that brings to the family unit. There's a HUGE difference between sacrifice (being subservient) and giving (understanding the role you play), and this book is about the latter.

This book was a little different than I expected, as the author wasn't the stay at home wife and mother that I imagined. Instead, throughout the book she was struggling with helping her husband provide for the family as well as maintain a home and care for her men. It was a great book though, and I felt often that I was right there with the author and could feel her plight and relate to the things she was struggling and working through. The way that God worked through her life in order to bless her husband, son, and home was a great read, and I really enjoyed her story. The only reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is because I wasn't able to relate to her story quite as much as I thought I would, as I have no experience with the whole military wife thing. But it is a wonderful read that I would highly recommend, especially for those of you who do have a husband serving in the military or are struggling with making ends meet.

You quickly get the impression from reading this book that the author values women who have gone to college and have careers most highly. She makes a few lame attempts to pacify stay at home moms with a few platitudes, but her true opinions come through none the less. Apparently you are not worth as much if you worked to support your husband college aspirations but didn't finish yourself. According to Sara, she had a hard time fitting in with moms who finished college but decided to stay at home with their kids. She goes on to qualify, that she knows so many of these moms who raise families and also run businesses on the side like Avon, or Mary Kay. That seems to raises their value in her eyes. I don't think this is a book many young moms should read. The last thing that women who stay at home with their kids, and have decided to put their aspirations on hold for the sake of their families, need is a book like this. We need both women with careers and women who don't work outside the home. One is not better than the other, more godly or more acceptable. Our value comes from Jesus and him alone. What He has called us to do is secondary. I think she has missed the mark in her desire to model the Proverbs 31 wife. Are we supposed to be everything she was? Or should our quest be brought to Jesus on our knees to be the wife He has called us to be? I don't think our only option is comparison, where we may fall short in our own eyes. Sara documents her struggles well and honestly, but her biases do come through a little to much.

This was a good book but not on my top 10 at all. It was basically a memoir of her life almost like journal entries or a blog. It was an easy read being in the story format but wasn't a huge help for me! She is basically a working mom who wants to convert to being more of a Proverbs 31 mom. So she goes through her viewpoint of Prov 31. Being a stay at home mom myself I couldn't relate a "whole" bunch to her stories because I am already the homemaker the nurturer and everything else of the house. However the closing few chapters when she sums up the fact that no matter how hard she tries to be something she realized the most important thing is her relationship and honor she brings to the Lord that I could completely relate with! She made a great point at the end of the book for all moms. The ones who are busy busy and trying to do it all and the ones who are at home trying to be the perfect mom yet always seeming to fail or never get it done. She had some good view points and if you are a working mom outside of the home this is probably a good read for you because it shows you perspective from someone like thats point of view!!

I appreciated Sara's humor and honesty form the beginning. The Proverbs 31 wife is held up as the ideal in Christian circles and often women feel it's so unattainable they give up before they begin. This is not a list of how to's or do this/get that formulas. Sara encourages the reader to dig into scripture on their own while sharing the story of what she learned by digging and applying in her own life. There is no one answer to the question. For me this book was a great encouragement, that I too could make the journey on my own one step at a time. That I may fall down and trip or rise up successful. But, the purpose of the journey is to draw me closer to God and my husband and children, not to lay on another guilt trip over failures real and imagined. I was also reminded that I can't know how God designed me to fulfill my role until I dig into His word and learn it and apply it for myself.

I loved this book, it was so relatable, I actually cried!I helped reinforce that I'm doing a good enough job

I thought it would have been more humorous and while I appreciate the experiment the author undertook, I was surprised her homemaking skills were not as advanced as I had expected. As a military spouse I can relate to some of the challenges but was not able to relate as I have four children and have to be organized and a mom and dad to them when my spouse is away. Maybe it's just me...

I guess it's okay. I thought I was going to find more answers about how living out a life as a 31 proverbs wife. I just ended up as confused as the writer itself about what a wife's life looks like. Every life is different I guess.

I found this book slightly frustrating as I wanted Sara to realise that she was exactly as God intended. However it was lovely to read about her journey of self doubt, which many of us have, to eventually just being able to take the hardest step of simply trusting God.

I've always struggled with the proverbs 31 wife and what I am supposed to be. This book was a fab story but also reminded me that all situations are different and it's what's in our heart that God cares about and how we carry out our tasks.