Reader's Group Guide
Seaside by Terri Blackstock

ISBN 0-310-23318-6 w Zondervan Publishing House w 122 pages w   a contemporary novella

1. Maggie, a successful photographer, taught her daughters, Corrine and Sarah, a bad lesson that they each carried into their adult lives. However, Maggie tells them while on vacation that the lesson of keeping their promises and fulfilling all their obligations came as a result of anger and bitterness towards their father. She says, "So now we all keep our promises, even if it kills us. We fulfill our obligations, even if they don't make sense. . . none of them really bring any joy" (p. 68). Discuss this in terms of the characters' lives, as well as in the lives of people you know, and maybe even in your own life!

2. What negative lesson do you feel your parents might have taught you that you have carried over into your adult life? What lesson would you like to see your own child(ren) unlearn?

3. One of the themes of this story could be summed up in the hope Maggie feels that she can show her daughters that "time wasted is not always a waste of time" (p. 10). What are some things we might consider to be a waste of time, and how might they really not be? Have you changed your own perspective on what might or might not be a waste of time? Explain.

4. The girls are very jealous of one another's lives (69-71). Corrine is jealous of Sarah's marriage and family, while Sarah is jealous of Corrine's freedom and business savvy, as well as her good looks. However, neither one's life was what it appeared to be from the outside.  How true to life is this scenario? Why does the "grass always look greener on the other side," even when we know in reality that it never is? What has your relationship been like with your siblings?

5. Corrine invested in her businesses, while Sarah invested in her church and volunteer organizations, but what they needed to invest in were their souls. And though Maggie had been a life long Christian, she did not teach her daughters this, nor did she learn it herself until the end of her life. What does it mean to invest in your soul, and how can we help each other to do that?  How does our culture work against us doing that?  On pages 86-87, Maggie says to her daughters, "I didn't bring you here to get rid of one set of stresses so that you could pick up another one. . .  I wanted to remind you where you can find rest. In the Bible we're told that there is a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And . . . we're told not to be anxious, to take our anxieties to the Lord because he cares for us." Why is it difficult for us to find rest and peace in God, and to believe that He knows us intimately and cares about our needs? What in your life do you feel anxious about? 

6. Which of these characters did you most relate to and why? What did each of these women decide to do differently in their own lives? Do you feel that the ending was too neatly tied up after only one week on the beach?

7. Corrine misquoted the Bible when she stated that "The Lord helps those who help themselves" (p. 87). Actually, this is a quote from Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac. Franklin's Autobiography became a moral tract for American students on how to be good and industrial citizens. It not only espoused a strong Puritan work ethic, it encouraged American individualism, and became a road map to wealth. One of his famous 13 Virtues, Industry, states this: "Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions."  How have we in the 21st Century, and even in the Church, carried this to the extreme?

8. Discuss Sarah and Corrine's reaction to finding out their mother had cancer, versus their mother's acceptance of  it (see chapter 18, 100-104). Why do you think Maggie did not tell her daughters about her cancer until it was too far gone? What did you think about their mother/daughter relationship?

9. Maggie states on page 74 that she had one major regret in her life, and that it was that she had allowed herself to hate the girls' father, and that she had made sure they both knew it.  .  . And if she could have moved on, their lives might have been different. Discuss regret in terms of being a mother, and also in terms of being a Christian.

© 2001 Connie Wineland