Real Love for Real Life: The Art and Work of Caring

From Publishers Weekly
Edith Schaeffer's The Hidden Art of Homemaking (1971) and What Is a Family? (1975) have sold steadily in Christian bookstores for over a generation, and now Ashworth offers daughters (and sons) of Schaeffer's early readers an equally inspirational tribute to caregiving. Wife and business partner of Nashville musician Charlie Peacock, Ashworth maintains in this solidly biblical yet culturally aware book that caregiving loving and serving other people is to some extent the duty of every Christian. For certain Christians, caregiving is also a lifelong vocation that, though undervalued in our productivity-obsessed world, deserves as much respect as any paid employment. Ashworth is no Martha Stewart: she provides encouragement rather than crafts and recipes. Nor is she Pollyanna: she recognizes that caregiving can be tedious and exhausting, and only those who set firm boundaries and rely on God's help are likely to persist. Ashworth's own struggle with balancing business and home life increases her credibility as she promotes flower gardens, hospitality and leisurely conversations over dinner, though some may object that such unhurried attentiveness can only be a dream for most young families. If her abundant anecdotes evoke nostalgia for a bygone era, they also reinforce her point that "when we create beauty in our environment, relationships, music, cooking, poetry and celebrations we express our hope for the new heaven and new earth that God promises." Ashworth does not provide a detailed road map to her peaceable kingdom, but she clearly shows that if it is ever to be created, someone must care. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
Because we are made in the image of a creatively caring God, we reflect his love and concern when we respond to the distinct calling to care for families, neighbors, friends, and communities. As society grows increasingly technological, isolated, and lonely, those who take their caregiving gifts seriously can fill a tremendous void.

In Real Love for Real Life, caregivers of all kinds can find the help and hope they need to fulfill their calling. Through personal illustrations, timely research, and thoughtful quotations, Andi Ashworth addresses the practicalities, philosophies, challenges, and joys of providing care in the relationships of home and community–leading readers to a greater understanding of the value and the validity of their call to be caregivers. With the encouraging hope and creative insights they’ll find in these pages, they can serve others in more effective, more fulfilling ways–in the name of God.


From the Inside Flap
Because we are made in the image of a creatively caring God, we reflect his love and concern when we respond to the distinct calling to care for families, neighbors, friends, and communities. As society grows increasingly technological, isolated, and lonely, those who take their caregiving gifts seriously can fill a tremendous void.

In Real Love for Real Life, caregivers of all kinds can find the help and hope they need to fulfill their calling. Through personal illustrations, timely research, and thoughtful quotations, Andi Ashworth addresses the practicalities, philosophies, challenges, and joys of providing care in the relationships of home and community–leading readers to a greater understanding of the value and the validity of their call to be caregivers. With the encouraging hope and creative insights they’ll find in these pages, they can serve others in more effective, more fulfilling ways–in the name of God.


About the Author
Andi Ashworth, the primary caregiver for her family, has been the partner with her husband–award-winning writer, producer, and performer Charlie Peacock-Ashworth–in business and ministry for nearly twenty years. Together they operate a recording studio and music production company in a suburb of Nashville. They have also co-founded and led a hospitality/teaching ministry called The Art House. Andi has been deeply involved in the women’s ministry of her church, and is currently studying at Covenant Theological Seminary. She and Charlie are the parents of two grown children.


Buy from Amazon     Compare Prices

Edith Schaeffer's The Hidden Art of Homemaking (1971) and What Is a Family? (1975) have sold steadily in Christian bookstores for over a generation, and now Ashworth offers daughters (and sons) of Schaeffer's early readers an equally inspirational tribute to caregiving. Wife and business partner of Nashville musician Charlie Peacock, Ashworth maintains in this solidly biblical yet culturally aware book that caregiving loving and serving other people is to some extent the duty of every Christian. For certain Christians, caregiving is also a lifelong vocation that, though undervalued in our productivity-obsessed world, deserves as much respect as any paid employment. Ashworth is no Martha Stewart: she provides encouragement rather than crafts and recipes. Nor is she Pollyanna: she recognizes that caregiving can be tedious and exhausting, and only those who set firm boundaries and rely on God's help are likely to persist. Ashworth's own struggle with balancing business and home life increases her credibility as she promotes flower gardens, hospitality and leisurely conversations over dinner, though some may object that such unhurried attentiveness can only be a dream for most young families. If her abundant anecdotes evoke nostalgia for a bygone era, they also reinforce her point that "when we create beauty in our environment, relationships, music, cooking, poetry and celebrations we express our hope for the new heaven and new earth that God promises." Ashworth does not provide a detailed road map to her peaceable kingdom, but she clearly shows that if it is ever to be created, someone must care. (July) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.


Buy from Barnes & Noble     Compare Prices