Hi friends! Happy June! A new month means a new focus and book club choice! Here are all the details:
June Focus: Nice
So, a fun fact about me is that I was voted “Nicest to Know” my senior year of high school. Nice has always been an adjective I wanted to be described as. I discovered early on that being nice made people like you, it kept you out of trouble, it rewarded you. Being a people pleaser meant that nice was my go to. I wanted to be seen as a nice person, a nice Christian. But in the last few years something about that title has been like a rock in my shoe, uncomfortable but I couldn’t seem to get away from it. When I came across our book choice of the month, I immediately stopped. The first line of the description read “God doesn’t call us to be nice.” What?! I couldn’t let it go because I definitely thought He did. We were supposed to be nice Christian women, weren’t we?
Nice may make people like us, it may get us an extra picture in our yearbooks or a pat on the back, but is it really a virtue? Could it even possibly be (gulp) an idol? What if niceness is not what we should strive for? What if things like faithfulness, courage and conviction, kindness and honesty were the better choices? What I’ve come to realize, and am still learning, is that it is one thing to be nice but it is a whole other thing to be the person God has called me to be. Maybe you feel the same, friend? Perhaps you are tired of people pleasing and being nice and long to be courageous and live out your faith the way God intended you to. Keep reading below and join in on our book club for this month. It’s gonna be a good one!
June Book Choice:
Our book choice for the month of June is “Nice: Why We Love to Be Liked and How God Calls us to More” by Sharon Hodde Miller. We will join Sharon again as she takes us through the journey of this seemingly innocent idol of niceness. My mind is already boggled because the roots of niceness are very deep in my life and I’m both excited and nervous to explore this! Sharon will cover what the fruits of niceness actually are (different than what we probably thought!) and how we need to cultivate a better tree. Each chapter will have scriptures to help us take root and questions to ponder so that we might dig deeper. We will face why we are compelled to put up the nice front and learn to seek true virtues, not false ones. This book won’t give you a pass to say whatever hurtful things you want or to treat people however we want but a call to more. A call to live the way of Jesus. It’s one that we need, especially in this day and age when our Christian convictions can’t stay silent. I hope you will join in!
Memory Verse:
Our memory verse for the month:
“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
Matthew 7:16-20
Have a great month, friends!