Our First Year of Book Club

 

Our first year of Book Club has come to a close.

What a year...
Of reading,
Of friendship,
Of ideas shared and laughter shared and tears shared and joy shared and life shared.

A few reasons I'm proud of us:

1. We don't "have time".
We made time.
We are all moms.
We are all busy.
But we know that the pursuit of ideas within community is vital to the fullness and richness of our lives and of our very personhood.
So, we made time.

2. We don't agree on everything, but we talk about everything anyway.
We listen. We hear. We question. We engage. We pursue understanding that supersedes both agreement and disagreement. We are unflinching and not afraid of ideas and their implication. Our conversations display great courage, and they better us.
We stretch each other beyond ourselves, and we are all more than we would be without this.

3. We honor each other.
True, unfettered honor shouldn't be a rarity in Christian community, but it is. And I'm so very proud of the way that we've cultivated it.
We SEE each other.
We listen.
We hear.
We assume the best.
We value each other's presence and input and experience and perspective.
We truly honor each other in this space, and it is truly unlike anything I've ever known.

It is so much more than books.
(But also, it's A LOT of books).

I love you both.
I praise God for you both.
I am more fully myself and so much more of what I want to be because of you both.

Cheers to 2023,
And bring on 2024.