Book Review - "Girl Talk"

This book. Love it! Jen Hatmaker is one of my new favorite authors. She is a strong Christian woman who is funny, real, and open. It is so refreshing! In early Spring, a lady from my church (and fellow southerner!) asked about interest in a ladies Bible Study over the summer. Me and several of the girls from our church small group showed interest, as well as about 30 other ladies! Dana organized the study and hosts all of us on either Wednesdays or Fridays. God has truly gifted Dana in hosting and leading. 

Wednesday group!

 As soon as I opened this book and read the first few pages, I knew it was just what I needed. "Girl Talk!" is about women and their friendships. As women, we are relationally driven (duh). Jen explains why God built us this way, why community is so important, and how to foster healthy relationships with your girl friends.

We are about 3 weeks into the study and I have loved every week so far. Each of the 5 chapters is broken into 5 days. Jen asks the reader to spend at least 15 minutes per 5 days on the devotional and studying God's Word. The chapters include content such as God's purpose in friendships, being truthful to yourself and God, kinds of friends, gossip, and friendship builders. Each page I read, I find myself saying, "Yeesss!."

One of the things that has stuck out the most to me, is the need to be real. Dana and I share this experience, but in the south there is this underlying culture of "making it pretty." If that's not enough, social media makes it worse! We don't live in a perfect world people. Lets.be.real. Real problems, real friendships, and real life. Like I said, it is refreshing! Which bring me to this piece in the book - there is no place for fake.

"He would prefer an honest mess over a pretty lie every day of the week." I'm a Christian and I'm a mess. See what I mean?? Yeeessss! So now, I'm taking this mess and working on building strong, Christian friendships. Do I have girl friends? Yes, yes I do. and I love them all. I/we are taking these friendships and making them even better. I love my girls and God has blessed us with such an amazing group of people to do life with. I think every woman can benefit from this book! It's a must read.