Discussion question your group will work through:
1.Casey opens by confessing that she spent years chasing a picture-perfect life — the right look, the right career, the right image — only to find herself empty. What is your version of that pursuit? What have you been striving after that has left you feeling more depleted than fulfilled?
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About This Study Guide
Lara Casey's Cultivate: A Grace-Filled Guide to Growing an Intentional Life is an honest, hope-filled invitation to trade the frantic pursuit of a perfect life for the slow, faithful work of growing a good one. Drawing on her own story of broken relationships, miscarriage, business pressures, and a garden that taught her more than she expected, Casey argues that meaningful growth is never instant — it is cultivated. The central thesis is deceptively simple: the same principles that turn a barren patch of dirt into a thriving garden apply to every area of our lives. We prepare the soil, we plant seeds with intention, we pull weeds, we water with patience, and we trust God for the harvest. The result is not a picture-perfect Instagram life, but something far better — a life deeply rooted in what actually matters.
This study guide is designed for use over twelve weeks, either in a small group or in personal study. Each week, read the assigned chapter (or chapters, in the case of the shorter introductory and closing sections), then sit with the discussion questions in a journal before gathering with others to talk. There is no right answer to most of these questions — their purpose is to slow you down and help you see your own life more clearly. If you are using this guide individually, consider writing out your responses and revisiting them at the end of the study to see how your thinking has grown. Close each week's session in prayer, surrendering the specific area of life the chapter has surfaced.
By the end of this guide, you will have moved through the full arc of Casey's argument — from acknowledging the exhaustion of striving for perfect, to learning to embrace imperfect progress, to building a concrete, grace-filled plan for your one real life. You will not walk away with a tidy five-step formula. You will walk away with something better: a clearer sense of what God is growing in you, the courage to tend it faithfully, and the deep-rooted confidence that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.
12-Week Schedule
- Week 1Introduction — Tired of Striving7 questions
- Week 2Chapter 1 — Unclutter7 questions
- Week 3Chapter 2 — Prepare the Soil7 questions
- Week 4Chapter 3 — Plant What Matters7 questions
- Week 5Chapter 4 — Water with Prayer7 questions
- Week 6Chapter 5 — Pull Weeds7 questions
- Week 7Chapter 6 — Tend with Patience7 questions
- Week 8Chapter 7 — Embrace Imperfect Progress7 questions
- Week 9Chapter 8 — Cultivate Community7 questions
- Week 10Chapter 9 — Grow Through Hard Seasons7 questions
- Week 11Chapter 10 — Celebrate the Harvest7 questions
- Week 12Review & Reflection — A Life Worth Cultivating8 questions
Week 1: Introduction — Tired of Striving
Free sampleRead the Introduction of Cultivate by Lara Casey.
1.Casey opens by confessing that she spent years chasing a picture-perfect life — the right look, the right career, the right image — only to find herself empty. What is your version of that pursuit? What have you been striving after that has left you feeling more depleted than fulfilled?
2.She describes the moment she realized that 'making it happen' on her own terms was actually working against her. Have you had a similar moment of recognition — a point where your own striving clearly wasn't working? What did that feel like?
3.The gardening metaphor is introduced early as the book's central image. What is your instinctive reaction to that metaphor? Does it feel hopeful, frustrating, or something else — and why?
4.Casey is honest that cultivating a good life is slow work and that most of us are not patient people. On a scale of 1–10, how patient are you with slow growth — in your garden, your relationships, your own character? What does your answer reveal?
5.She distinguishes between a 'perfect life' and a 'good life.' In your own words, what is the difference? Which one have you been more focused on building, and why?
a.What would it look like, practically, to shift your focus from perfect to good this week?
b.What fear might be keeping you from making that shift?
6.Casey frames the entire book around grace — the idea that growth is God's work, not just ours. How comfortable are you with receiving grace rather than earning your way forward? Where does that discomfort come from?
7.What do you most hope to discover or change by working through this book? Write down one specific expectation and one specific fear you are bringing into this study.
Week 2: Chapter 1 — Unclutter
Read Chapter 1 of Cultivate by Lara Casey.
1.Casey describes her own life as cluttered — not just physically, but with commitments, expectations, and identities that were suffocating the things she actually valued. What forms of clutter are most present in your life right now? (Think beyond stuff — think time, relationships, mental noise.)
Week 3: Chapter 2 — Prepare the Soil
Read Chapter 2 of Cultivate by Lara Casey.
1.Casey uses the image of breaking up hard, compacted soil as a metaphor for preparing our hearts and lives to receive growth. What does 'hard soil' look like in your life right now — areas that have become resistant, closed off, or difficult to work with?
Week 4: Chapter 3 — Plant What Matters
Read Chapter 3 of Cultivate by Lara Casey.
1.Casey argues that most of us are planting things by default — by the habits, patterns, and yeses we drift into — rather than by intentional choice. What are you currently planting in your life by default that you haven't consciously chosen?
Week 5: Chapter 4 — Water with Prayer
Read Chapter 4 of Cultivate by Lara Casey.
1.Casey is candid about her own struggles with prayer — that it has felt dry, rote, or impossible to sustain. How would you honestly describe your current prayer life? Is it watering your life, or has it become more of an afterthought?
Week 6: Chapter 5 — Pull Weeds
Read Chapter 5 of Cultivate by Lara Casey.
1.Casey describes how weeds in her garden were not obviously evil plants — they looked, at first glance, like they might belong there. What 'weeds' in your life currently look respectable or neutral but are actually stealing resources from what you are trying to grow?
Week 7: Chapter 6 — Tend with Patience
Read Chapter 6 of Cultivate by Lara Casey.
1.Casey describes the temptation to dig up a seed to check if it's growing — something every impatient gardener has done and every impatient person has done in their own life. What seeds have you dug up prematurely because you couldn't trust the process? What happened?
Week 8: Chapter 7 — Embrace Imperfect Progress
Read Chapter 7 of Cultivate by Lara Casey.
1.Casey's central phrase in this chapter is 'imperfect progress is still progress.' How does that simple reframe land on you? Does it feel like permission, like lowering standards, or like genuine wisdom?
Week 9: Chapter 8 — Cultivate Community
Read Chapter 8 of Cultivate by Lara Casey.
1.Casey opens this chapter by acknowledging that true community is rare, and that many of us have settled for surface-level connection because vulnerability feels too risky. Where would you honestly place your current closest relationships on a spectrum from 'surface-level' to 'genuinely known'?
Week 10: Chapter 9 — Grow Through Hard Seasons
Read Chapter 9 of Cultivate by Lara Casey.
1.Casey shares her experience of pregnancy loss with striking vulnerability. How did her honesty in this chapter affect you? Did it open up something in your own experience of loss or grief?
Week 11: Chapter 10 — Celebrate the Harvest
Read Chapter 10 of Cultivate by Lara Casey.
1.Casey observes that many goal-oriented, driven people move directly from one harvest to the next planting without ever stopping to celebrate what has grown. Is this true of you? What is your relationship with celebration and gratitude for progress?
Week 12: Review & Reflection — A Life Worth Cultivating
Review your notes and journal entries from the full study of Cultivate by Lara Casey.
1.Looking back across the entire book, which single chapter or concept was most personally significant to you? Why that one? What nerve did it touch that others didn't?
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This study guide covers Cultivate in 12 weeks, with chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, reading references, and closing prayers for each session.
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The complete guide includes 85 discussion questions across 12 weeks — an average of 7 questions per week, designed for group conversation.
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