Grace for This Good Girl

Y'all. I just got Emily Freeman's book Grace for the Good Girl and am reading through it (& sharing our thoughts via Facebook - go technology!) with a few ladies at my church. After reading the first few chapters, here are my thoughts:

For starters, I seriously feel like this Emily Freeman woman donned a hazmat suit, got inside my head, ruffled around, then wrote a book about it. 

The first few chapters of the book deal with expectations of the "good girl." While a good girl's sin might not be as obvious or tangible as illegal drugs or a multiplicity of one night stands, its there. Oooohh is it there. It's just kinda hard to see through all the different masks good girls tend to wear - masks like: good performance, good reputation, having it all together, acts of service, spiritual disciplines, strength and responsibility, etc. Yes, these things can be good, but they can also be mega-hindrances to letting the gospel into every nook and cranny of life. 

Emily also talks about the good girl that follows you around, judging you, condemning you, watching your every move. HOW DID SHE KNOW I HAVE A GIRL WHO FOLLOWS ME AROUND LIKE THIS? That's what I wanna know. So many times the expectations I enforce on myself aren't realistic or imposed by others - I create them in my own mind. Then when I don't live up to my unrealistic ridiculousness, the invisible good girl following me around makes sure to point it out - cue guilt. Lots o' guilt for not measuring up to things I could never even measure up to in the first place. Its ridiculous and crazy, I fully realize that, but its how I operate. And, if I'm honest, how I've operated for my whole life. I mean heck - what other first grader do you know that voluntarily locked themselves in timeout for two hours for - wait for it - forgetting to put their name on their school paper? If you needed any evidence that I fit the bill for the women Freeman's trying to reach, there's your sign. 

I can tell the journey through this book is gonna be fruitful. Probably not pretty or nice, but fruitful. So join me! Pick up Grace for the Good Girl and come feel super convicted and crazy with me.