Are you a “Good Girl”?
If so, this book is for you.
Emily Freeman, owner of chattingatthesky.com, recently released a book called Grace for the Good Girl, which is all about “letting go of the try-hard life.” Before I started, I wasn’t sure if I would entirely connect with the book. I mean, I’m not a “good girl” right?
I know, I know, you can stop laughing.
After reading the four page introduction, I wondered if I was going to end up underlining the whole book. What she described as the “good girl” was unmistakeably me.
Experience guilt and don’t know why? check.
Feel the heavy weight of impossible expectations. check.
Have an insatiable desires to explain every mistake. check.
Always obey the rules, and if there are no rules, obey rules that you think there might be. check.
“Good girls” tend to hide behind masks of good reputation, good performance, strength, responsibility, spiritual disciplines, acts of service, her comfort zone, and/or indifference. Emily takes each of these masks and helps women recognize the mask in themselves as well as how it affects their relationship with God and others. But, friends, this is not a self-help book. She doesn’t give us five ways to take off these masks. Instead, she talks about the journey, reminds us of the truth, and recognizes that this process is a wrestling.
Some of you may remember my post from late last year about being broken. As I was reading this book, I realized that this post represented a significant realization in my life. I can’t keep on hiding behind the mask, and in fact, that very mask of organization, responsibility, and whatever else isn’t actually me. When I realized this back in November, I felt a small loss of identity. I remember sitting on my couch and saying, “If I’m no longer organized and reliable and on top of things…. then who am I? I have nothing left to offer.” Seriously, I said that and believed it with all of my being. While I can now realize the error of my thinking, I still sometimes believe it, even though I know it isn’t the “right answer.” (In case you don’t know, the right answer to which I’m referring is: “I am a child of God and my identity is in Him, thankyouverymuch.”)
It is evident that Emily is a student of the Scriptures. She is gifted at helping us see how Jesus saving us has everything to do with how we live our day-to-day life, and that our salvation doesn’t stop at “now I’m going to heaven.” Jesus is saving us from all of these masks as well.
I think this book would be a great one to go through with a small group of women that are committed to one another. It provides questions at the end of each chapter (as well as a small group guide at the end of the book) that encourages the reader to make the material their own. This is one that you will want to read through first yourself, and then read again with a good friend to process more out loud.
So, if you think you may identify with the “good girl” label, grab a friend and a copy of this book, and get reading.
Thank you, Baker Books (specifically the Revell division) for a complimentary copy of this great book! They encouraged me to give an honest review, and so I did 
.
