Graceful

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Emily Freeman has a heart for the good girls.

She understands the pressure to not mess up, to smile, to be okay, to have it all together. The guilt when you know you’ve messed up and can’t tell anyone for fear of spoiling your perfect image. The exhaustion of maintaining that image, and yes, the fear that someone will discover deep down, you’re just like everyone else.  She has names for the masks we hide behind: the Actress, the Heroine, the Intellectual, even the Girl Next Door.

gracefulGently, lovingly, Emily takes off the masks and exposes the insecurities, the fears, and the secret sins of the good girls. She does it with grace and understanding, since she, too, has worn those masks. And she provides the way to finally find freedom and peace, pointing us to Jesus, Who already sees the deepest parts of our hearts and loves us anyway.

Graceful lives up to its name. You won’t feel judged by this book — it feels like a sweet, cleansing breeze. Emily doesn’t shy away from the truth, and that’s what makes this book beautiful, but she expresses the truth with grace and compassion. Graceful is for a younger audience than Emily’s “sister book,” Grace for the Good Girl, but the theme is the same: learning to find our identity, and our freedom, in Christ.

Giveaway (Closed)

Want to read it? It’s our joy to have a copy to give away! To enter, leave a comment from your heart — whatever you want. No need for perfection here. If you’d like, share a “mask” you tend to hide behind. A winner will be chosen on March 20.

27 Comments

  1. I would love to win a copy of Graceful.

    I’d like to share a couple of verses. Roman 8:38-39
    38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

  2. Oh, this looks like it could be such a good book and commission for our eyes to be on Jesus always, only and ever!

  3. I am a Pastor’s daughter so I know the pressures of trying to have it “all together” and play a certian role. God has been showing me this last year all the different ways that I’ve hid in the past, through some painful curcumstances, but I know that His faithful to complete the work He’s started in me. I would encourage any woman who is hiding behind a mask to allow God to remove it, from personal experience I can promise your life will never be the same!

  4. Wow, I read through the preview on amazon and tears came to my eyes. This is something that God has just started convicting me of…

  5. I read Grace for the Good Girl and loved it. This one looks like it would be amazing as well. It’s so easy to get sucked in to being “good” and rules and spending your life worrying about what other people think of you. I’d love to read this one as well and share it with my younger sisters.

  6. Wow. This looks like a great book. Definitely a topic I’ve been pondering a lot lately. Sometimes we just think we have to do it all in our own strength, yet God’s grace is sufficient, and it is through Him that we live, and move, and have our being.

  7. This book sounds wonderful!
    I struggle with the ‘I’ve got it all together’ mask. My personal to-do-list, and everything I have been asked to do for others must always be finished, my personal appearance and emotions always under control, and I must always be able to lend a hand/give the perfect advice/help however you need it etc. when you ask it of me (or expect it of me).
    But God has been making me humble myself and admit my shortcomings OUT LOUD and TO OTHERS… let’s just say it’s hard!!!!

  8. This sounds like something I really need to read…thank you for offering the opportunity to do so!

    I struggle with so many things….one of which is the desire to find my affirmation in other people. I constantly need to be reminded that Christ is the only one who fulfills me.

  9. I find myself hiding behind a mask so often as my classmates at school see me as the perfect student but inside I’m just like them but I’m afraid to show it as I’m afraid that it will tarnish my reputation.

  10. This books sounds like its what I’m needing at the moment!

    I find I struggle with acceptance – other people accepting me, as well as self-acceptance. So I tend to do things that I think will make me accepted.

  11. I struggle with perfectionism and feeling like I have to “have it all together” all the time. It’s hard for me to let go of that and to allow myself to fail, to stumble, and to not be okay all the time.

  12. This sounds very interesting. I want to pick it up and flip through it right now . . . 🙂

  13. I struggle with acceptance. I want others to like me and want to be around/be friends with me, but when someone seems to not want me, I am hard on myself for not measuring up to their standards. I all too often forget that I’m to meet God’s standards and not those of humans.

  14. Oh! I’ve been wanting to read this book. 🙂 Thanks for the chance to get my hands on a copy, KG.

  15. This would be the perfect book for my best friend and I to study through together! We live 6 hours apart and have only met in person a handful of times (we started as pen-pals and have grown into best friends!) Right now we are going through Liz Curtis Higgs’ “Embrace Grace” and it sounds like this book would be a perfect sequel! Just FYI, we each read a chapter, then chat a discussion of it via GoogleTalk, so far its working great and we are loving the spiritual connection we are developing!

  16. The idea of grace has always been like a duty to me, I need to extend more grace to those around me, and less about receiving grace. I wonder how it would change my life to be more about receiving grace. I would love to learn this and pass it on to my 3 kids. Looking forward to reading this book. Thanks..

  17. The need for affirmation….I’m a “people pleaser” by nature, and I’ve learned the many downfalls of being like this. It drives me to the need of perfection and thus a lack of grace for myself.

  18. I often have trouble admitting when I am wrong and giving grace to myself. I sometimes hide behind the mask of confidance when I am at my most vunrable. This book sounds wonderful

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