1. If you’ve read the Yada Yada Prayer Group novels, you’ve already met Avis Douglass. What surprised you the most as you became more intimately acquainted with her in this first SouledOut Sisters novel?
2. Have you ever felt like Avis’s husband Peter: “Do we just keep on doing what we’re doing until we retire? Or do we look ahead, ask ourselves, what would we really like to do before we retire, while we’ve still got our health and a little energy . . . put our experience to use doing something else, something different”? How would you approach such a conversation with your spouse or family members?
3. Is there someone in your life who annoys you, like Kat Davies annoys Avis? Have you thought about why this person annoys you? How do you respond? Do you . . . pull away? Avoid him or her? Speak with annoyance or frustration? Simply tolerate him or her? Consider: Might God be prompting you to relate in a different way with this person? Why or why not?
4. Even Avis Douglass—a mature Christian—had her moments of feeling stuck in her prayers! (See pg. 137–138.) When was the last time you felt like that—wanting to pray, feeling desperate, but not knowing just how to pray? Avis heard the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit say: “Praise Me in faith, praise Me for what I’m going to do and am already doing, even if you can’t see it. Let the joy of the Lord be your strength.” Avis prayed Psalm 42 to get unstuck . . . try it. Let the “joy of the Lord” by your strength.
5. In Chapter 19, Avis recognized she was holding the CCU students at an emotional distance. “Sorry for fussing, Lord . . . I just have so much on my plate right now. I don’t feel like I have the energy to relate to new neighbors.” Why is it so hard to relate to “new people” when you have a lot on your plate? Is that an easy excuse? When is it OK to pull away from other people? Is there danger in ignoring someone God may be putting in your path for a reason?
6. A multicultural church can be a blessing—and also has its challenges. What do you think the women talking in the Ladies Room at SouledOut (Ch. 19) meant by worrying that the church might become “too black”? Avis never confronted the women or let them know she’d overheard. Was that the right or wrong thing to do? What would you have done if you’d been in Avis’s shoes in that bathroom?
7. Kat had promised Rochelle she wouldn’t tell her parents about meeting her on the street. But when she learns that Rochelle’s ex had been abusive, and that the Douglasses don’t know Conny is staying with his dad, she faces a dilemma. What would you have done? Have you been in a similar situation where you’ve made a promise but feel like you have to break it? What are the implications?
8. When Kat rushed out of the Douglasses’ house after dinner, Nick wanted to go after her but Avis stopped him. What do you think Avis meant by telling Nick not to “get in the way” of the Holy Spirit? In our rush to comfort someone or “fix things,” how might we “get in the way” of the Holy Spirit?
9. Kat said she wished she were Rochelle—at least Rochelle and her mother had a relationship that could be restored. Kat barely had a relationship with her mother, couldn’t remember when she’d been hugged like that (see pg. 363). Is there a broken relationship in your family that needs restoring? What might you do to take that first step toward reconciliation?
For more Reading Group Guide questions about Stand by Me, visit www.ThomasNelson.com/RGG