Book Club Night Kit

Making Peace With What I Can't Control

Lysa TerKeurst

Cozy night

Lysa TerKeurst offers a tender, honest look at what happens when life refuses to follow our carefully made plans, and how peace can be found anyway. It is a gentle read that invites readers to unclench their fists a little.

Bring Your Softest Socks and Your Unanswered Questions

We are gathering around soup, crumble, and Lysa TerKeurst's Making Peace With What I Can't Control. Come as you are, finished or not, with nothing to prove.

Reading level: Easy

Best for: A close-knit club that likes soft blankets, honest talk, and second helpings of dessert

Discussion

Warm-up

1.Where did you do most of your reading for this one, and did you find yourself reaching for tea, a blanket, or a pen to underline with?
2.Was there a page where you had to stop, set the book down, and just breathe for a minute? What was happening in it?

Digging in

1.The book keeps circling the idea of unclenching. What is something small you have been gripping this week that you would like to loosen your hold on tonight?
2.Lysa writes about disappointment that does not get tidied up. Did reading that make you feel comforted, uneasy, or a little of both?
3.Was there a line or idea in here that felt like it was handed to you personally, almost like someone had been listening in on your last hard year?
4.The book treats peace as something you make rather than something you find. Which of those two versions of peace has felt truer in your own life?

Going deep

1.Lysa is honest about the seasons where trust and faith felt thin. If you have been in one of those seasons, what did company or comfort look like for you then, and did this book name any of it well?
2.By the last pages the book leaves you somewhere different from where it started, without tying every thread. How did you feel setting it down, and is there something you have made a quiet peace with that you are willing to share?

On the table & to sip

To eat

Slow-simmered chicken and rice soup

The book is essentially a bowl of soup handed to someone having a hard year, so serve the literal version in mismatched mugs.

Skillet cornbread with honey butter

Homey, Southern-leaning comfort that nods to the author's North Carolina roots, and it needs no plating or fuss.

Warm apple crumble with cream

Imperfect, spooned straight from the pan, sweet in the middle of something messy: the whole thesis of the night in dessert form.

To sip

Honey chamomile tea with lemon (no alcohol)

A nervous-system-soothing pot to keep refilling while people talk about hard things gently.

Salted maple hot chocolate (no alcohol)

Indulgent and a little salty-sweet, for the readers who came to be comforted, not challenged.

Mulled red wine with orange and clove

Warm, spiced, and slow-sipping, the kind of glass that keeps a conversation soft instead of sharp.