{This giveaway is now closed.}
We all have a story inside us. And if yours reads similar to mine, yours may not include eye-popping skeletons in the closet. Still, that doesn’t mean you haven’t found yourself in a heap o’ tears, guilt and self condemnation from looking around and seeing failure everywhere.
Growing up, I was a classic good girl who cared too much about disappointing people to break rules or push boundaries. Thanks to good parents, I knew Jesus from a very young age. While I knew He loved me always, I thought He might love me more if I behaved well and performed well. And so began a lifelong quest to try harder and harder to be better and better.
And today? I’m a recovering grown-up good girl. So, when I find a jewel like Emily Freeman’s book, Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life, I want to sing and dance all at the same time.
What is a good girl, you ask? Well, a good girl isn’t perfect. Oh no. She knows her own shortcomings all too well. It’s a girl who creates her own safe places to hide – whether hiding behind good performances or the fake “I’m fine!” or acts of service {among other things} – because she has forgotten a Safe Place already exists in Christ.
While being a “good girl” seems like the “right” choice, it’s an exhausting one. Good girls run and run on our own imaginary treadmill, amping up the speed in an attempt to do enough so we can be enough. But try as we may, all that striving and performing never satisfies the longing in our soul that says we are enough. Eventually, we buckle under the weight of impossible performance expectations and the guilt of not performing better.
Good girls throw the weight of the world onto their own shoulders and then beat themselves bloody when they can’t carry it. As Emily puts it,
“Even though I was the one who wrote the job description and hired myself to fill the role, I want to both quit and fire myself. I am never satisfied with me.” p. 80
Hello. Does this sound familiar to anybody else?
{Isn’t Emily just the cutest thang?}
In soul stirring, eloquent and authentic words, Emily tells of the One able to satisfy our soul’s longing. Through sound biblical truths in girlfriend-to-girlfriend style, Emily illuminates the true beauty of God’s plan: Because He already is enough, we don’t have to be enough anything. We are safely hidden in Jesus. Our souls find rest knowing we are enough not only because we are hidden in Christ, but because Christ remains in us.
“God’s Spirit indwells us in the same way we are to let his Word dwell richly within us. It is not only remaining in Christ; it is letting Christ remain in you. It is letting the person of Jesus Christ take up residence within you, not as a timid houseguest, but as the abundant provider, the bread-winner, the respected head of the household, the host.” p. 150
If you’re a tired good girl, this book is a song for your soul. Emily wields her pen like a conductor with a baton, making each note of this masterpiece sing right off the page and settle in your heart. Because each note speaks of the Creator who orchestrated her message, Emily’s book will have you dancing in freedom as it massaging hope into your weary heart. It will have you releasing the try-hard life and embracing the grace-full life found only in the healing, unfathomable love of Christ.
Would you like to win a copy of Emily’s Grace for the Good Girl? Emily’s publisher, Revell, graciously provided one for a giveaway. Just leave a comment below stating if the book would be for you or for another good girl in your life. I will announce the winner next Monday! Also, please visit Emily’s blog Chatting at the Sky for more lovely, grace-filled encouragement. {And while I was asked to contribute an honest review of this book, I was not personally compensated beyond a free copy of the book. I can’t recommend this read highly enough!}
Grace for the Good Girl is available September 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
I’m so glad you loved this book, and I would LOVE to win a copy. I’m just like you–from the time I was in high school, I was “good”. I took the right classes, got the right grades, did anything and everything I did well. But I was also kind of an unhappy and empty person. I still fall into the trap sometimes that I need to be good and to do all these things for God to love me, when really it’s just the opposite–God does love me, and so I should do good works to demonstrate his love to others. Sigh. It’s still an ongoing battle for me!
Hi Kristin! Wow. This sounds like it will be an amazing and very much so needed read for every woman out there, including myself! I’ve struggled my whole 22 years of life with being that good girl who is just too hard on herself. Our stories sound very similar to one another! 😉
I think this book would be helpful for me to read. Seriously.
I love this book. And I would love to share it with my dear friend, Jan. :o) <3
I wrote my own story and shared it with sweet Emily as she crafted this important piece of truth for all of us…to taste what living *free-er* is all about. I can’t wait to read what she strung together, and I can’t wait for Grace to wrap me up tight again and again, as He does each day. I chase after perfection sometimes (okay, often) and it gets me all in a big funk and affects every relationship, especially at Home.
I’d love to read this book, and most especially *win* it, cause I just can’t bring myself to buy books (gasp!). And after I read it…I promise I’d give it away to a dear friend who needs this reminder, and I’d ask that she gives it away…and so on. First, though…I think I’d give it to my mom. 🙂
Me, me, me, me, meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! 🙂
I think we all struggle with this every once in awhile. It’s hard to continue to be that “good girl” each and everyday. We want to glorify God in everything that we do, and honor our parents, but is can be a huge challenge sometimes. This book sounds like it would be a great read and I would love to own a copy and share it with other friends. =)
~Emily N.
(emmylou520@gmail.com)
I would LOVE to win this book. So so much ! Yipeeee to {recovering, I hope!} good girls !
This book would be first for me and then to share with other women. I’ve followed Emily’s blog for awhile now and so look forward to reading this. Yes, I’m one of those recovering Good Girls, Kristen. Because of His love and grace for me, God allowed chronic illness into my life over 12 years ago now. Slowly I’ve been able to do less and less outward activity. In the slow stripping away of performance, He’s quietly leading me further and further into the invisible places of simply being.
Thanks for the awesome book review, Kristen, and for your beautiful blog. I always know when I visit you here I will come away with that feeling of having had a tall, ice-filled glass of sweet tea with a girlfriend. Refreshing and reviving. Thank you!
Oh my goodness! I am such a recovering “good girl”. I would love to read this book and I suspect I would end up having to share it with a few friends, too. God has totally changed my life this past year and it’s really helped me reassess that try-hard life I’d been living.
Definitely for me…..
This book would definitely be for ME! 🙂
I would love to win this book!
I feel like I could have written those words~I was very introverted, wanting to hide and not be noticed, in fear if I spoke I wouldn’t have anything to say of value, or would get laughed at. I tried to do everything in my power that was pleasing. Agreed with everyone….It’s sad when I think back to how introverted I was..I desperately wanted to please, so I didn’t create any tiffs or problems, but went along with everything. Went out of my way to help people..I think being a middle child and having two older siblings and two younger, I was always forgotten about. I had trouble getting a word in at the dinner table because I didn’t want to interrupt anyone and the rest always spoke and continued to speak, not giving me a chance. Don’t think my parents realized that I would have liked to join in. I remember giving up a doll (one that I dreamed of having) I received at a children’s Christmas party to a little girl that was screaming because she didn’t get one, because my parents told me it would be the nice thing to do. I gave it up freely because I wanted to please my parents. Deep down I was torn that I had to part with something I so desperately wanted. So you could say I was a Good Girl wanting to be loved in so many ways. ~ anxious to read your book Emily!
Sounds like someone has been inside my head. Would love to read this. Thanks for sharing.
I would love to read this book.
I would love to win a copy of this book… I wouldn’t say I’m a recovering good girl yet… but have realized through the posts I’ve seen about this book that I am a good girl, and excited to dive more into my identity, and how I’ve been named by the one who created me, who hasn’t named me good girl…
No only would I identify with this book but I have 3 very bright, loving women who need to hear these words-before they burn out!
Oh, man. Totally for me. As a youth/college pastor’s wife, I often wondered how I would ever connect with the girls in our ministry when I didn’t feel like I had much of a story to tell. I never really did anything “bad.” My friends parents would sometimes chastise them and say, “You should be more like Mollie.” How embarrassing. I would love to check out this new book!!
Oh how I would love to read a book like this. I find it so hard to keep up sometimes. I struggle with perfectionism because I think I have some sort of image that I’m “supposed” to project. And I’m tired of living like that.
I am the “bestest” of the recovering good girls. This message is so very important because grace=joy, and joy is what we have to offer this broken-down, burdened world. God has shown me that “His yoke is easy and His burden is light”, and oh, what a difference it has made!
It would be for me 1st – I just need to know that I know that I know God’s grace. But I love sharing good books, so it is sure to be passed on!
Hi Kristin,
Thank you for this giveaway. I have this on my wishlist to buy but who wouldn’t want to win a free copy?! Have a beautiful day!