The Purple Cellar (TPC): The Girl Talkers are single-handedly responsible for starting 5:00 O’Clock Clubs all over the place. What exactly is a 5:00 O’Clock Club?

The Girl Talkers: Well, we certainly don’t take credit for the original idea. Actually, there are many godly women who have gone before us—in centuries past and in our own generation—who have faithfully risen early to seek the Lord and care for their families. Inspired by their lives and examples, we try to get up early, and the Five O’Clock club (or the 5 AM Club as we refer to it in the book) was a fun way to encourage others to join us. And for those who are new to the 5 AM Club, we’d want you to know that it’s not a legalistic, guilt-inspired attempt to get everyone to wake up at exactly five am. Five o’clock is simply the time we try to get up in the morning (some of us closer to it than others!) and it seemed like a fresh way to introduce the idea on our blog. But there’s a lot of grace in this club, and you can join no matter what time you decide to wake up early (although 11:00 a.m. might be pushing it a bit!).

TPC: What books are on your current recommended reading list?

The Girl Talkers: Right now on our blog we are in the middle of a book club, reading a winsome, witty, and intelligent little book about how to live out complimentarian principles in relationships. It’s called Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart by John Ensor.
When Sinners Say I Do: When Grace Meets Marriage is a brand-new book by our friend Dave Harvey, who is a member of the Sovereign Grace Ministries leadership team. Having heard him speak on the content of this book, we can’t wait to read it for ourselves. After Covenant Life Church (where three out of four of us attend) went through a series on the Lord’s Prayer last year, Mom [Carolyn Mahaney] has begun to read J. I. Packer’s book Praying the Lord’s Prayer, which she’s enjoying very much.

TPC: What are the questions you get asked most on the GirlTalk blog?

The Girl Talkers: Guy-girl relationship questions top this list for sure. We also get plenty of emails from moms of young children and from moms of teenage girls. We try to answer as many emails as we can. However, we always encourage women that they will find the most help and wisdom when they seek biblical counsel from pastors and friends in their local church.

TPC: Shopping for Time stresses the importance of bargain hunting. Will you give us a sneak peak here as to how this applies to time?

The Girl Talkers: As women, we invest a lot of time, thought and effort into honing our shopping skills. We’ll go to great lengths to hunt down a bargain (such as standing in long lines, in the rain, over night!), we’ll study sales patterns and go to three different grocery stores just to take advantage of the sales. We’re deliberate, focused, and well-planned. We’ve got our head in the game, so to speak. We’re committed to finding the best deals and not paying full price for anything. In Shopping for Time, we encourage women to bring the same dedication, intentionality, and skill they apply to the purchasing of material things to the eternally valuable use of time. And actually, as we explain in the book, this shopping analogy is actually drawn from Ephesians 5:15-16, which is the “theme” verse for Shopping for Time.

TPC: What topics are you currently covering on the GirlTalk blog, and what upcoming features can we anticipate?

The Girl Talkers: We wish we knew! Although we try to plan ahead, we usually figure out what we’re going to do the week, or even the day of posting. Much of the blog content comes from our lives—our conversations, our struggles, lessons learned, etc. But we do have several more Girl-to-Girl talk interviews planned, and we’ll continue to do the book club. And we have several fun things we’re hoping to launch in the next few months. So we’d love to have your readers drop into GirlTalk for a chat.