Monthly Archives: September 2011

{Giveaway} Grace for the Good Girl

**10.06.11 Update: The winner (selected completely at random by a third party at 12:03 am) is … Carole Huck! Congratulations, Carole! Check your email for details. For everyone else who entered, thank you for leaving a comment! I still highly recommend this book to you, and it can be found here.**

My name is Emily, and I am a good girl.

“Grace for the Good Girl: Letting go of the Try Hard Life” by Emily P. Freeman.

I can’t fully express in words the impact and awesomeness of this book. If Jon Acuff got inside my head, than Emily Freeman (who also blogs here) got inside my heart and wrote the words that I had only wrestled with as concepts under the cover of darkness – many of which hadn’t yet been formed into coherent thoughts and hadn’t yet been reached with Truth.

From page one, I identified closely with the perfectionist mentality of the good girl. And as I continued to read, struggling between the desire to read slowly to soak in every word and the desire to read quickly to embrace the entirety of the message, I knew that this book would lead me to more deeply experience Grace because this book would remind me of and lead me to the truth and freedom in Christ.

To be honest, by chapter two, I didn’t know for sure that I could handle going on. I found myself becoming defensive – even a little raw – as Emily’s words, beautifully intertwined with Scripture, proved to be challenging, convicting, and exposing. I had assumed going into this book that it would affirm much of what the Lord had already begun to reveal in me, but it went so much further beyond what I had expected. In a good way. In a soul-satisfying way. Although challenging, the tone is never threatening, but rather always inviting. And the message is centered on Jesus Christ.

“Jesus is the radical, absolutely complete, living answer to all our if-onlys and if-I-could-justs. His unwavering, unchanging, unconditional love and acceptance of us is what we are really looking for.” (p. 215)

Even the questions at the end of each chapter are well-written, piercing, and enhance the message. Sometimes I read books in which the questions seem completely irrelevant, but I somehow feel compelled to come up with answers anyways. This book isn’t like that. The questions are honest and revealing, and the answers flow freely from my heart and my mind.

Resting on the foundation of Scripture, this book is life-changing because this book points again and again to the One who changes lives.

And it’s for that reason that I’m giving away

a copy of “Grace for the Good Girl” today.

To enter for a chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment below (just be sure you leave a valid email address). You can tell me why you would like to read this book, your favorite flavor of ice cream, the last time you went to the beach, or just say hello.

For an additional chance to win, you can also subscribe to my blog via email (see sidebar to the right) OR via a feed reader, and leave a separate comment telling me you’ve done so (and yes, even if you’ve been subscribed for a while, you can still leave this additional comment).

You can comment until midnight next Wednesday (October 5, 2011). The winner will be chosen randomly and will be announced/contacted next Thursday (October 6, 2011).

**disclaimer: i was not asked to review this book or give away a copy. i just strongly believe the message is worth sharing. oh, and come back this saturday as i begin the new series 31 days to better understand our {God given} callings**

5 Things

1. As if you don’t get enough of my ramblings already, I joined twitter this weekend. You can follow me at @emily_gallimore. But only if you want to.

2. The big office reveal will have to wait until November. I know I said I was hoping to do it within the next couple of weeks, but a fun writing project will now be taking over the blog for the entire month of October (details in #4 below!), and the office reveal just doesn’t quite seem to fit the theme. At least not yet. Maybe I can figure out how to sneak it in there in mid-October when you’re tired of hearing from me. But I figure this way, by November all at least most of the small details will already be in place, so it will feel even more finished.

3. I’m having a giveaway on Thursday. You will NOT want to miss this. I am seriously SO excited to share the awesomeness with you!

4. A few blogs I follow (The Inspired Room, Nesting Place, Chatting at the Sky) have previously done 31 Day series during October, and this year, they’ve invited others to join in the challenge with them, so I’ve [somewhat hesitantly] decided to participate. So, as long as all goes according to plan, I’ll be posting daily in October under the topic of 31 Days to Better Understand our [God Given] Callings. I may have more questions than answers, and the series may not be quite as polished or refined as I would prefer, but I’m excited to explore this topic with you for a month, and I invite you to join in the conversation. A formal introduction to the series will be posted on October 1st.

5. Umm…October 1st is THIS Saturday. And I have no idea what that photo has to do with this post either, but I liked it.

Life and Breath and Everything

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind

life and breath and everything.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your poets have said,

‘For we are indeed his offspring.’”

Acts 17:24-28 (English Standard Version – emphasis added)

Far too often, rather than approaching the Lord in a state of breathlessness, being fully caught up in the Wonder and Awe of who He is and what He has done, it seems that we find ourselves approaching Him just plain out of breath. Begging for the energy to go on.

Maybe it’s just me?

But if the Lord gives us - to ALL mankind - life and breath and everything, if the Lord is not far from us, if we are the Lord’s offspring, if in the Lord we have our very being.

Then perhaps our seemingly-too-frequent experiences with spiritual exhaustion and burnout are reflective of moments in which we’re not seeking God, in which we’re not feeling our way toward him, in which we’re not depending on His power, in which we’re not resting in His peace, in which we’re not allowing Him to be our everything.

He’s placed us here. He’s hoping to be found. He’s actually not far.

“If you get confused…”

After opening the box from IKEA, pulling out all of the shelf pieces, sorting the hardware…

…and staring at the first page of the instructions for a good five minutes…

…the conversation with my roommate, B, went something like this:

ME: I just don’t understand!

B: [pointing to one line at a time] This means you need these tools. This means it won’t crack and not cracking is good. This means if you get confused and need help, you should call IKEA.

ME: You got ALL that from those pictures!? I couldn’t figure out WHAT they meant!!

B: Didn’t you ever read the comics?

Ha!

All confusion aside, by the end of the night we had a desk AND a shelf put together and looking mighty fine in the getting-closer-to-being-an-awesome-office-and-writing-space.

I’m now in the final (well…sorta) stages of organizing and choosing decorative details, so I hope to have a final reveal of the completed office posted within the next couple of weeks (because I know the suspense is almost unbearable!).

All Things Fall

When Melissa at The Inspired Room announced that her Fall Nesting Party 2011 was right around the corner, the first thing that popped into my mind was something to the effect of:

“Umm…I’m pretty sure since it’s still pushing 90 degrees around these here NC parts, I won’t even begin to think it’s fall until late October.”

But since fall is by far my favorite season, I decided to join in the celebration of all things fall after all!

So in the spirit of fall, over the past couple of days…

…pumpkin made its first official appearance of the season in the form of these pumpkin cupcakes with a cream cheese topping thanks to my awesome roommate.

…the weather actually decided to join the party and the highs have remained in the sixties for two. whole. days. With temps like that, I don’t even mind the clouds.

{and if you only knew what I went through for that picture} 

…I decided to pull out the fall decorations for the coffee table. To see other fall decorations (and non-cellphone photos) that will likely make an appearance later in the season, check out this post from last year. You can just ignore the part about Koine Greek. It hurts my head, too.

…and I enjoyed my first Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks, which is typically a sure sign that fall has, indeed, arrived. And to make this particular latte even better, when I pulled up to the drive-thru window, the barista informed me that the car in front of me had already paid. Apparently, this paying-for-the-order-in-the-car-behind-you had gone on for quite a while, so I gladly joined in the fun and paid for the gentleman in the car behind me as well. Unexpected blessings in early fall are simply the best!

Are you ready for fall?

5 Things

1. I spent the end of last week in and around Houston, TX with two dear friends from college. From touring the Blue Bell Creameries and walking through the streets in Brenham to exploring the shops on The Strand in Galveston to just catching up around the kitchen counter, we had such a great time!

2. Blue Bell had a new flavor of ice cream that I was more than happy to try while we were there: tiramisu. Coffee ice cream, pieces of coffee and cake, and a caramel sauce swirl. . .so good.

3. The office (well, part of it. and the shelf has since been assembled.):

4. My Monday night women’s Bible Study started back up last night. This fall we’ll be studying Kay Arthur’s Precept Upon Precept Genesis Part 1: The Creation, which is based on Genesis 1 and 2. I am beyond excited to dive into this study. Are you in a Bible Study this fall? What are you studying?

5. Thanks to a friend who happens to live right down the hall from me and blogs here, I may or may not have eaten this for breakfast…