Books help us learn, but books also help us love – Baptist News Global

Without books, a certain magic is lost. Deep connections are built from the intimacy that comes from sitting close together, turning the pages you enjoyed reading while eagerly awaiting the words and illustrations that await on the other page.

Books help us learn, but books also help us love. Those who teach us to read love us. Those who write the things we like to read love us. Those who read with us and reflect our excitement about new knowledge love us.

Shelby Peck

Yet all too often the pleasant purpose of books is overshadowed by the darkness of selfishness and the rhetoric of harm. Books are used to perpetuate injustice, and instead of making us feel like we can, they tell us we can’t.

Far too often, women with interest in ministry, myself included, have been told we can’t do this; this statement is often found in books. Many Christian authors use their eloquence and their respective platforms to publish a plethora of setbacks and barriers for women.

The continued publication of books that deny others their agency, rather than encouraging them to evolve their mindset and develop their inner strength, discourages women from pursuing their professional calling.

“Fortunately, there are also books written by women in ministry and by advocates for the care of women in ministry.”

Fortunately, there are also books written by women in ministry and by advocates for women in ministry. Books that tell women that they are gifted and called to lead through the encouragement of the Holy Spirit. These books provide their authors with a medium to express their struggle and story of survival, but they also provide their audience with an opportunity to learn, shape, and rediscover their own stories and the stories of women in Scripture.

For me it is actually the Bible, The Word of God was the highest authority through which I learned to recognize my calling.

For my project “Women in Service” in a class at Baylor University, I decided to write and illustrate a children’s book called I am God’s helper! I created this book as a symbol of love – love that tells girls what they can be rather than what they can’t; love that allows adults to teach a beloved child to read; love that celebrates the space of community and care in which children are meant to grow up.

The purpose of this book is to celebrate the various gifts and callings God has given to women, whether they are in the ministry or actively involved in the local church. Each page features a woman, “God’s Helper,” serving in a different capacity in her local church, from the pulpit to the nursery to leading the ministry.

When children learn the different roles that women hold in the local church, they can imagine the real names and faces of the women they know, thus developing a greater awareness of the women in their own lives and the positive influence they have. My hope is that this book will not only enable children to learn from a young age that women are equipped and encouraged for any spiritual purpose, but that parents will also encourage their children to listen for future callings and cultivate relationships in which their children feel supported to pursue those callings.

We are not meant to grow and learn in isolation. Once we find the courage to find our voice, we are meant to teach others, to hear about their experiences, and to share what we have learned. Through books, whether they be sacred Bible texts or the sacred experience of what God has done in the lives of modern women, we are not alone.

“Books have great power, but they have even more power when you put them in the hands of someone who loves us and wants God’s best for our lives.”

We are not alone in our setbacks, and we are not alone in moving forward. We have the Holy Spirit, and we have each other.

My parents often remember the days where, as a young girl, I would pull all the books off our bookshelves and beg them to read together. I’m so grateful for the thirst for knowledge they instilled in me from a young age, and I’m grateful for the countless hours they spent reading and rereading all-too-familiar children’s books – books that told me I could do it, and that taught me to find my voice through my own writing.

Books have a powerful impact, but they are even more powerful when they are placed in the hands of someone who loves us and wants God’s best for our lives. My prayer is that a children’s book like the one I wrote will teach children, especially young girls, that they are capable of following God’s call because they are supported by their caregivers and loved by their Savior.

I still fear the future and still struggle with feelings of inadequacy. But I am not alone. I suspect no woman in ministry ever feels ready, but what is crucial is that she feels called. Hearing the call of the Spirit, even in fear, is courageous. And I am called.

Shelby Peck studies journalism and religion at Baylor University.

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