I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet Study Guide plus Streaming Video: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

by Shauna Niequist

What If You’re Not a Failure? What If You’re Not Falling Behind? What If You’re Learning? “Every single thing that used to work has stopped working, all at the same time.” Award-winning author Shauna Niequist’s mom wrote down this phrase in her mid-forties and shared it with Shauna in her mid-forties. It was exactly the way Shauna was feeling at the time. Many of the beliefs and practices that had been useful in her life no longer worked. After trying—and failing—to move forward using the same old tools, she realized she required new courage, curiosity, and self-compassion. Throughout the five sessions of her I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet video series, Shauna talks about unlearning what is no longer helpful, embracing curiosity, and making peace with the unexpected twists and turns of life. She shares candidly about the challenges and blessings she has experienced and invites participants to explore what happens when we release our expectations for how we thought life would look and open ourselves up to the freedom and peace that come from choosing to be a beginner again. Whatever you’re trying to navigate, Shauna’s honest reflections offer hope for healing and encouragement to begin again. Discover that life is more about questions than answers, more about forgiveness than force, more about tenderness than trying hard. This study guide Sessions and video run This study guide has everything you need for a full Bible study experience , Streaming video access code included. Access code subject to expiration after 12/31/2027. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.

144 pages, Paperback

Published December 13, 2022

About the author

Shauna Niequist is the author of Cold Tangerines, Bittersweet, and Bread & Wine. Shauna grew up in Barrington, Illinois, and then studied English and French Literature at Westmont College in Santa Barbara. She is married to Aaron Niequist, who is a pianist and songwriter. Aaron is a worship leader at Willow Creek Community Church and is recording a project called A New Liturgy. Aaron & Shauna live outside Chicago with their sons, Henry and Mac. Shauna writes about the beautiful and broken moments of everyday life--friendship, family, faith, food, marriage, love, babies, books, celebration, heartache, and all the other things that shape us, delight us, and reveal to us the heart of God.

Reviews

[Panda Incognito · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a women's self-help guide with some Christian themes woven in. The description doesn't make it sufficiently clear at first that this comes from a religious perspective, or that it's only intended for women. When the description does refer to this as a Bible study, that's not accurate either. This is a topical study on experiencing change and growing through difficult circumstances, and although there is more of a spiritual focus towards the end of the book, the Bible is typically a side note to the author's thoughts and the people she quotes, such as Brene Brown.

You don't have to read the memoir by the same name to enjoy this book. The author shares her story through the recorded sessions and different reflections in the study guide, and it all makes sense and is easy to follow regardless whether you get the book to read alongside this. However, this study runs into the issue of being too Christian for secular readers (even though she acknowledges them) and too secular for people who want an actual Bible study. The Bible elements are there, but they're random selections shared around the author's experiences and ideas, rather than being the starting point for an actual Bible study.

This will primarily appeal to people who are already fans of the author. She shares a lot of wisdom in this book, and there are many helpful prompts for people to think about their own lives and stories, but this seems like an overly niche product to me. Even though I have been dealing with a lot of change in my life, this was less relevant than I'd hoped, and it was more about women facing mid-life challenges than people facing change in general. If this had more of a foundation in Scripture, it could have spoken to my experiences in a universal way, but because it's focused on the author's expectation that you'll relate to her, I didn't get a lot of personal benefit out of this.

There are a lot of truly great, helpful ideas in this book about processing change, learning self-compassion, and caring for yourself through challenging growth instead of blaming yourself for struggling. The discussion questions are also pretty open-ended, and I like that this book includes both the leader and participant content, so that people can rotate through who leads a group study and so that solo readers like me have all of the content. On the flip side, I don't like that you can't buy this book without buying the streaming code as well. For people who actually are meeting in a study group, it would make sense for participants to be able to buy workbooks at a lower price point with one streaming code for the whole group.

This book will be very helpful for some women, especially if they are already fans of the author or enjoyed her original I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet memoir, but I found that it was a mixed bag overall. The author shares lots of wisdom and encouragement, and this book can lead to very helpful reflection and growth for many women, but I would have much preferred something that was more Bible-based and less specific to a life stage.

I received a free copy from the publisher through Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.

[Sarah Boyette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful for leading the study.

[Trisha Hatfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, very thought provoking but wish it had more scriptural references.