Let's Bust a Recap : Closer Than a Sister

Well, this post is being brought to you today by sheer willpower and self-discipline. I just have not been in the blogging mood lately what with a hurricane landing a tree on my house, wrangling workers into putting our new roof on, having our nieces here for a few weeks, some back and forth with them to and from Alabama, and now the holidays are upon us. Oh my! All I really want to do is sit by my cozy Christmas tree with a hot cup of tea and watch Christmas movies 24/7. 

But that's just not the way real life works and actually, using all the determination I have to write this blog post is fitting because today's subject was a book I read for a women's book club that my church hosted this summer. Your girl is a hardcore introvert so it took a lot of personal resolve to make myself go to the Tuesday night meetings. I muscled through and, if memory serves, I only missed three out of the eight meetings so I'll call that a win. I recruited my BFF Christina to read this one too and she totally cheered me on from Florida as I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to attend the book club up here in North Carolina—usually spending time on the phone with me as I drove to the church and even reading a chapter aloud to me one week when I got behind but still made myself go to the meeting. Because that's what a sister will do.

Closer Than a Sister by Christina Fox was published in 2017. It is an exploration of Biblical friendship and an exhortation to cultivate and care for those relationships. The book is structured in three parts: A Community of Faith, Living with Sisters in Community, and Challenges in Sisterhood. Part I lays out the foundation for the book, explaining from a Biblical viewpoint how we were created for community and how it is Christ that unites us and actually deepens our relationships into more than friendship. This felt very much like a review for me, but I liked Fox's personal—though still intelligent—style of writing. Part II is the practical side of living in community and it makes up the largest chunk of the book. Fox covers topics on helping each other; mourning, rejoicing, and growing together; exhorting one another; and learning from one another. I found this section of the book to be the most helpful and the most challenging. Part III dives into the difficulties and obstacles one encounters when trying to cultivate and foster community. As someone who is still navigating an out-of-state move after living in the same town my whole life, this section was the most encouraging for me. My closest friends no longer live close enough to come over on a whim, kick their shoes off, hug my neck, and settle on my couch for a chat or help me with a project or run errands with me just because. It's been a tough transition and we're over three and a half years into it. I honestly don't know what kind of a state I'd be in if my mom and sister-in-law didn't live right up the street. I probably would have already convinced Cody to take me back to Florida. 

All that to say, I think this book is a great resource, particularly if you are having to cultivate a new community from scratch. I may end up reading it again next year. I am truly thankful for the built-in community that fellow believers experience together. It is such a gift. But all relationships take work and intentionality, and reading Closer Than a Sister was a deeply needed reminder for this girl who has been doing life with the same friends she's had since she was seven years old. That closeness just takes time, there's no two ways about it. 

Have you built a solid community to do life with? And if you did that as an adult, please share all your advice with me!