So Much More - The Bad

Picture taken from
book's Goodreads page.

**Missed the first two posts? Part 1 and Part 2**

My Amazon review can be found here.

My Goodreads review can be found here.

As per usual, anything of note and/or not directly on topic will be written in this blue.

Welcome to the third and final part of my review of the book So Much More. This has been something I have been working on slowly for more than five years, so it's nice to finally be able to move on with my life.

I want to bring up something first. This is the part where I talk about what is bad in the book. I will not mince words, as some of these topics are awful and harmful to people.

I am not trying to say that the Botkin sisters are awful humans. I am not trying to say that the Botkin sisters are horrible people that want to destroy the world. I am not saying that the Botkin sisters are abusive Christians themselves.

Also, I am not trying to excuse their writings or beliefs in this book.

What I am saying is that the authors were young. What I am saying is that their writing is thinking that has been carried on in the church for hundreds of years, and that this thinking is wrong. What I am saying is that this thinking has led to many painful instances that could have been avoided and need to be stopped in the future as both bad theology and wrongly placed blame.

Or else we get to experience the "Debt-free Virgins Without Tattoos" that the Transformed Wife discusses. There's a lot of problems with that, but I'm not touching that with a ten-foot pole and better people have talked about how it's wrong.

With that being said, here are the bad things of So Much More.

So Much More - The Worrying and the Confusing

Picture taken from
book's Goodreads
page

** Missed the first post? Find it here.**

Welcome to Part 2 of my So Much More review, where I talk about the things that are worrying/confusing. Though this was written with good intentions, there are things in this book that raise quite a few red flags.

As a side note, the authors were 19 and 17 when this book was published, and it does show. (They do admit to their youthful idealism on their personal website, so that's another point in their favor.) When reading, it comes off as idealist, rigid, and full of "tips" for situations that they have never obviously never experienced.

*Any words written in the blue like this are side notes*

So Much More - The Good

In one of my literature classes, I heard that you should always point out what you agree with so that when you disagree with something the disagreement has more weight. I found that to be a good idea, so that is what I'm doing today.

So Much More was published in 2005 by the Botkin sisters, Anna Sophia and Elizabeth, through Vision Forum. We saw how well that ended. I did enjoy a lot of their stuff, both from the girls section and the boys section. Even though she dislikes it now, I still like Joyfully at Home by Jasmine Holmes, which was also published by Vision Forum.

SMM has caused a lot of stir in the Christian community. Normally I would tell you to read it for yourself, but there are a lot of good books out there and I want you to read those first. So I'm taking this bullet for you. 

I Guess That's Why They Call it "Amazing Grace"

I Guess That's Why They Call it Amazing Grace  

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now I’m found,

Was blind, but now I see!

Was blind to the things I needed to change. Was trying to save myself. Was trying to escape the darkness. That’s how I was when He found me. Since that day, He has given me light to see. Love to give to others and love for me. The love and grace I never would have deserved or earned on my own. I guess that’s why they call it, ‘Amazing Grace’.

‘Tis grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved!

How precious did that grace appear,

    The hour I first believed.

That grace grows more precious as time goes on, as I make more mistakes. As I fail, time and time again. That love that never leaves me, when I do or say something I never should have. Sometimes I feel like I am a waste of mercy, and that He will leave me. But He never does, and sometimes I don’t understand why. I guess that’s why they call it, ‘Amazing Grace’.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,

I have already come!

‘Tis grace that has brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

What I have come from, some could call a living hell. But God brought me through every time, every circumstance. I now can say, those times have made me stronger, because of the blood that came from my Savior, and because of the thing called, ‘Amazing Grace’.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun!

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise,

Than when we’ve first begun.   

But sometimes I feel like He doesn’t exist. Like He isn’t there. But when I look at a flower, a blade of grass, an ant, a thunderstorm, a sunrise, a sunset, my family, I realize He is. I think about the grace I really, really don’t deserve.

I guess that’s why they call it, ‘Amazing Grace.’

*Originally posted on my first (and now deleted) blog on 02/28/2013