New book by mother-daughter team examines “Girl Talk” on biblical womanhood

A unique new work takes a truly “up close and personal” look at the mother-daughter relationship as it relates to biblical womanhood.

There is seemingly an endless array of Christian literature on biblical fatherhood and raising boys but a unique new work takes a truly “up close and personal” look at the mother-daughter relationship as it relates to biblical womanhood.

With Girl Talk: Mother-Daughter Conversations on Biblical Womanhood (Crossway Books), mother-daughter team Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Mahaney Whitacre offer insights and suggestions on how mothers and daughters must talk to each other about what it means to become a godly woman.

Carolyn Mahaney is a wife, mother, homemaker, and author of Feminine Appeal, another Crossway title. She is the wife of C.J. Mahaney, a board member of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and president of Sovereign Grace Ministries.

Whitacre is also a wife, mother, and homemaker. She contributed to the study guide for Joshua Harris’s I Kissed Dating Goodbye and also assisted her mother with Feminine Appeal.

Two other Mahaney daughters-Kristin Chesemore and Janelle Bradshaw-are also quoted throughout the book along with the husbands of each daughter.

The book is relaxed and conversational in tone and includes 25 chapters and five appendices (including one entitled “How to Lead Your Daughter to Christ”) on topics ranging from a mother’s love, example, discipline, and faith, to a daughter’s honor and obedience. In addition to biblical teaching on each topic, the authors weave throughout the book dozens of personal examples and anecdotes showing how mother and daughter are to live out their relationship to the glory of God.

In the opening chapter, Carolyn sets forth one of the book’s cornerstones: the language of biblical womanhood. Here, she defines biblical womanhood as “God’s perfect plan for women as revealed in the Bible.” She then unpacks the vital importance of the language of biblical womanhood that guides the “living out” of the mother-daughter relationship.

“Much more than writing a script, it’s (the language of biblical womanhood) a way of life,” she writes. “More than something we read or write, it’s something we speak and do.

“We find this language scattered throughout the entire Bible. Tucked in Titus 2:3-5 is a summary of some of the qualities of a godly woman, such as purity, self-control, kindness, love for husband and children, skill in homemaking, and a heart of submission. But we find more traits in passages such as Proverbs 31:10-31, 1 Timothy 5:9-10, and 1 Peter 3:1-6-steadfast faith, good works, strength, and wisdom, united with a gentle and quiet spirit…Together these characteristics comprise the language of biblical womanhood.”

In a chapter written by Nicole on the critical nature of female modesty as it relates to the way in which a woman dresses (entitled “Taking God to the Gap”), the author interviews “Jason” and “Jack,” two young Christian men, on what they desire in a women. Both men communicate clearly that modesty is an irreducible attribute that must typify a godly women.

Later in the chapter Nicole writes, “…immodest dress is more than simply wearing a short skirt or a low-cut blouse. Immodesty is an expression of pride and self-importance, the opposite of humility. Revealing, seductive clothes are the costume of a woman seeking to draw attention to herself rather than bring glory to God. So modesty, then, is humility expressed in dress. It is the attire of a godly woman…Our wardrobe is a public statement of our heart motivation.”

The book also includes a study guide and is available through the CBMW webstore: https://www.cbmw.org/store/.