God never called us to be nice.What happens when we replace courage with compromise? What happens when we replace honesty with likability? What happens when we replace conviction with clichés? What happens when we replace discipleship to Christ with a devotion to nice?We live in a culture that prizes niceness as one of its highest virtues. Niceness keeps the peace, wins friends, gains influence, … peace, wins friends, gains influence, and serves our reputations well, but it also takes the teeth out of our witness and the power out of our faith. When we choose to be nice instead of faithful, we bear fruits that are bland, bitter, empty, and rotten to the core.
In this life-changing book, Sharon Hodde Miller explores the seemingly innocent idol that has crept into our faith and quietly corrupted it, producing the bad fruits of cowardice, inauthenticity, shallowness, and more. Then she challenges readers to cultivate a better tree, providing practical steps to reclaim our credibility as followers of Christ, and bear better, richer, more life-giving fruits.
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Nice is not enough
Speaker and author Sharon Hodde Miller presents her book “Nice. Why We Love to Be Liked and How God Calls Us to More”, published by Baker Books. The book can be divided into three parts, the first dealing with the Fruit of Niceness and its varieties (Fake, Rotten, Bland, Bitter, Hard, and Processed, the second with the challenge of cultivating a better tree (Grow Original, Grow Deep, Grow Less, and Grow Wild), and the third part which deals with Fruit That Lasts.
In a culture where being “Nice” seems to be the norm, especially for Christians, Miller’s first statement “God did not call you to be nice” challenges the readers. Miller writes about herself: “I identify “niceness” as an idol in my life because I have served it tirelessly, and it has served me well in return” (p. 12). According to her Christians have to cultivate something that is deeper than niceness. At the end of the introduction Miller writes the goal of her book: “Niceness is a characteristic that most of us love to use, but it can end up using us instead. It becomes a master we fear to defy, and as a result, it eventually stands between us and obedience. What each of us needs in place of the superficial virtue of niceness is a soul rooted and abiding in Christ. We need to be transformed so fully and completely that we actually are who we present ourselves to be. We need to cultivate a fruit that, instead of tasting worse than it looks, tastes even better than we could imagine … So let’s roll up our sleeves and get to the work of pruning this habit from our lives and this idol from our hearts…” (p. 17/18).
Miller closes every chapter with a segment called “Taking Root” that offers a Bible passage which deals with the discussed topic and a segment called “Digging Deeper” with question that challenges readers to deal with the discussed topic. Notes at the end of the book help for reference and further study. I highly appreciate Miller’s book for its openness and honesty. It is for those readers who want to be challenged to get away from niceness. The study guide which is available can be a help for the individual reader, but I recommend the book also for Bible study groups and book clubs.
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#Nice #TheNiceBook #NetGalley
All of my life I’ve heard that I should be nice but in her new book Sharon Hodde Miller tells readers that “God did not call you to be nice.” She supports this statement by focusing on the analogy that Jesus used in Matthew 7 when he stated that “Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit , nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.” In the first seven chapters of Nice: Why We Love to be Liked and How God Calls Us to More, Miller explains that the fruits of niceness can be fake, rotten, bland, bitter, hard, and processed. What does she suggest that we do? We must cultivate a better tree and the last six chapters are devoted to this concept. We can become better by finding our true purpose, rooting our soul, becoming deeper and better, and flourishing, so that the fruit we produce will be a lasting fruit!
This book is easy to read and easy to comprehend and I like that most of the chapters include the sections Taking Root (selected Bible scripture) and Digging Deeper (questions to help us increase our understanding). There are also several pages of notes with bibliographical references. I have been using it for my personal study but I believe that Nice would also be a valuable resource to use in a Women’s Bible Study,
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author and Baker Publishing but a favorable review was not required. These are my own thoughts.