Grace for the Good Girl—letting go of the try-hard life by Emily P. Freeman

I had a friend recommend this book and although I haven’t finished reading it yet I have found it to be very enlightening.  The following is the summary from the back cover of the book:

You’re strong. You’re responsible. You’re good. But as day fades to dusk, you begin to feel the familiar fog of anxiety, the weight and pressure of holding it together and of longing left unmet. Good girls sometimes feel that the Christian life means doing hard work with a sweet disposition. We tend to focus only on the things we can handle, our disciplined lives, and our unshakable good moods.

But what would happen if we let grace pour out boundless acceptance into our worn-out hearts and undo us? If we dared to talk about the ways we hide, our longing to be known, and the fear in the knowing?


In Grace for the Good Girl, Emily Freeman invites you to release your tight hold on that familiar, try-hard life and lean your weight heavy into the love of Jesus. With an open hand, a whimsical style, and a heart bent brave toward adventure, Emily encourages you to move from your own impossible expectations toward the God who has graciously, miraculously, and lovingly found you.

I also wanted to include a few passages that stood out to me.


This innate desire to be good indeed protected me from a lot of heartache and baggage. It protected me from teenage pregnancy and bad grades and jail.  But it did not bring me any greater understanding of God.  It did not protect me from my own impossible expectations.


I subconsciously categorized people into classes of either right or rebellious rather than seeing them as people in desperate need of God.


Anything we do to get life and identity outside of Christ is an idol, even service to Christ. He doesn’t want my service, He wants me.

There is a powerful video that will give you a better idea of who the book it written for and what it is about.  http://vimeo.com/28693612