Emotional Purity

I received a copy of Emotional Purity: An Affair of the Heart from the author, Heather Patenaude, for review.  Written mostly to young ladies, there is much there for the young man as well.

The first thing that strikes you about the book and title is the fact that purity is more than simply physical—which is where many teens and couples leave it—but it is also emotional.

I really how this book is not just a book of abstract ideas, but it uses “Tracy and Mike”, an illustration drawn from the author’s life, to illustrate the point.  Tracy is a young woman who has a friend, Mike, and she has translated his behavior towards her as that of romantic interest.  However, that’s not exactly how Mike sees it.

Quickly, you can see where it’s going, and yet as you can see, with the author, the benefit of making sure not to commit your emotions to someone before you are sure they are returned—and ultimately returned in a marriage relationship!—each of us has had a time, I’m sure, where our thoughts have been consumed with a person of the opposite sex: what does she think about me, does he think I’m pretty, etc.

What this does, Patenaude tells us, is cause us to lose the ability to focus on the Lord during the gift of single years, and it causes emotional scarring on our heart that our eventual spouse will have to overcome.

I’d definitely recommend this book to every single young lady reading this blog.  It’s not expensive, and the value in understanding this kind or purity is invaluable.

You can read more from her at her blog by the same name, Emotional Purity.

I received this book on the condition of a review from the writer. The views are my own.