Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul: Participant's Guide (Heart to Heart Small Group Video)

Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul: Participant's Guide (Heart to Heart Small Group Video)

Every little girl has dreams of being swept up into a great adventure and of being the beautiful princess. Sadly, when women grow up, they are often swept up into a life filled merely with duty and demands. Many Christian women are tired and struggling under the weight of the pressure to be a "good servant," a nurturing caregiver, or a capable home manager. What Wild at Heart did for men, Captivating will do for women. By revealing the core desires every woman shares- to be romanced, to play an irreplaceable role in a grand adventure, and to unveil beauty-John and Stasi Eldredge invite women to recover their feminine hearts, created in the image of an intimate and passionate God. Join us as we journey into the deep mysteries of our feminine souls in order to recapture our hearts. Let this study guide accompany you through your great adventure of coming alive as a woman . . . God's captivating woman. Captivating Study Guide By Stasi Eldredge Thomas Nelson Copyright © 2007 Stasi Eldredge All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4185-2754-9 Contents Introduction, v, Chapter 1 The Heart of a Woman, 1, Chapter 2 Created Eve/Fallen Eve, 9, Chapter 3 Wounded, 15, Chapter 4 Healing the Wound, 21, Chapter 5 Spiritual Warfare, 27, Chapter 6 Romanced, 33, Chapter 7 Loving a Man, 41, Chapter 8 Beauty to Unveil, 47, Chapter 9 Irreplaceable Role, 53, Chapter 10 Caring for Your Heart, 59, Closing Remarks, 65, About the Author, 67, CHAPTER 1 The Heart of a Woman (Captivating, Chapter One) As we begin this study together, know that it is a study of discovery. A journey, really. For you to discover who God meant when he meant you. What does it mean to be a woman? What is my calling in life? What does God value? What does He want from me? What do I want? And is that okay ? We are not carbon copies of each other. Not at all. God loves diversity and he has fashioned each one of us uniquely and well. But it is a very good thing to know that we are not alone on this journey of life; we have much more in common with each other—simply because we are women—than we don't. We share more than most of us realize. For instance, we have a feminine heart. We have to start there, because as the Scriptures tell us, the heart is the center of it all. Look up Proverbs 4:23 and write it below. Think about it: God created you as a woman. "God created man in his own image ... male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). Whatever it means to bear God's image, you do so as a woman. Female. That's how and where you bear his image. And not in your body. The Trinity does not have a body. No, you bear God's image in your heart. Is this a new thought for you? Your feminine heart has been created with the greatest of all possible dignities—as a reflection of God's own heart. You are a woman to your soul, to the very core of your being. And so the journey to discover what God meant when he created woman in his image—when he created you as his woman—that journey begins with your heart. Another way of saying this is that the journey begins with desire. What are some of your favorite stories or movies? In them, who do you want to be? The stories we love reveal much of the secret desires of our deep hearts. If you take a close look, talk with the women in your life, you'll find that we share themes in our core desires. They are not all that we want and they play out differently in our lives, but in her heart of hearts, every woman longs to be romanced, to play an irreplaceable role in a heroic adventure and to unveil beauty. It is right that we do, for it is in these desires that we bear the image of our God. In the DVD, Sue shared that she related to the horse, Pilgrim, in the movie, The Horse Whisperer. Why? Romanced In your own words, define the desire to be romanced. Do you remember some of the games you played as a little girl? What were some that you really enjoyed? Are you aware of a longing to be someone's priority? What would you like that to look like? Irreplaceable How would you describe the desire to play an irreplaceable role in a heroic adventure? What were your dreams for your life when you were a little girl? What did you want to be or do? Allowing yourself to dream a little bit, think about this: If you could do or be anything you wanted now, what would it be? Let your mind drift over that idea, imagining what your life would be like if you could follow that dream, the people who would be around you. Would you characterize that dream role as one that would be easily replaced or one that is more on the side of essential? How would your living that life impact others? How is the life you are living now impacting others? Beauty to Unveil Who is beautiful to you and why? Do you want to be beautiful, inside and out? Do you think you are or could be beautiful? Describe the desire for a beauty to unveil. The core desires that God placed in our hearts have