Book picks similar to
Shiny Things: Mothering on Purpose in a World of Distractions by Amanda Bacon
parenting
giveaways
non-fiction
faith
Anchored: Finding Hope in the Unexpected
Kayla Aimee - 2015
She thought her church upbringing had prepared her for every circumstance but when tragedy struck and threatened to take the life of her newborn daughter, it felt as though once solid ground had turned to glass beneath her feet, destined to shatter everything she held sacred. When swept into a story of suffering, we all find ourselves vulnerable, questioning everything we thought we knew as we wonder, “Where is God in this?” With everything feeling as fragile as her one and a half pound daughter, Kayla finds herself asking that same question as she faces her greatest fear: that she may have finally become a mother just to lose her only child. Both poignant and humorous, Anchored recounts Kayla’s gripping story of learning to navigate her newfound motherhood in the most unexpected of ways, from holidays in the hospital and middle-of-the-night phone calls to the joy of coming home. With vulnerability and plenty of wit, Kayla lays bare her struggle to redefine her faith, her marriage, and herself within the context of a tragedy she never saw coming. For anyone who has felt their faith in God falter, Anchored extends a gentle invitation to join her as she uncovers a hope that holds.
The Truth about Lies: The Unlikely Role of Temptation in Who You Will Become
Tim Chaddick - 2015
But what if, in God's purposes, temptation is not merely an obstacle to overcome but an opportunity to flourish in faith?
Love Is Patient, But I'm Not: Confessions of a Recovering Perfectionist
Christopher West - 2017
. . but not like this.In this revealing book, renowned speaker and author Christopher West discusses the topic of love and relationships, but he does it through the lens of his own powerful and personal experience. If you've ever wondered what to do with that deep cry of your heart to love and be loved, read on.Love Is Patient, but I'm Not offers West's reflections on Pope Francis book The Joy of Love. It focuses on the heart of the pope's meditations on the famous love is patient and kind passage from 1 Corinthians 13. Its short chapters will take you line by line through the passage, and will also let you in on some intimate aspects of West's faith journey—his wound of perfectionism, his consequent challenges as a husband and father, and the ups and downs he experiences as he struggles to work it all out. As it turns out, we aren't the only ones who find it hard to live out the love St. Paul describes for us.Interspersed throughout the book are short prayers and questions for reflection designed to help you open your heart to God and experience his unconditional, merciful love more fully. Read this book for a dose of spiritual encouragement and for a real-life look at what it means to live the joy of love.
The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction
Justin Whitmel Earley - 2019
We yearn for the freedom and peace of the gospel, but remain addicted to our technology, shackled by our screens, and exhausted by our routines. But because our habits are the water we swim in, they are almost invisible to us. What can we do about it?The answer to our contemporary chaos is to practice a rule of life that aligns our habits to our beliefs. The Common Rule offers four daily and four weekly habits, designed to help us create new routines and transform frazzled days into lives of love for God and neighbor. Justin Earley provides concrete, doable practices, such as a daily hour of phoneless presence or a weekly conversation with a friend.These habits are “common” not only because they are ordinary, but also because they can be practiced in community. They have been lived out by people across all walks of life—businesspeople, professionals, parents, students, retirees—who have discovered new hope and purpose. As you embark on these life-giving practices, you will find the freedom and rest for your soul that comes from aligning belief in Jesus with the practices of Jesus.
Forgiving God: A Story of Faith
Hilary Yancey - 2018
Restore and grow your faith as you read about Hilary Yancey's personal journey back to God.Three months into her pregnancy with her first child, Hilary Yancey received a phone call that changed everything. As she learned the diagnosis-cleft lip and palate, a missing right eye, possible breathing complications-Hilary began to pray in earnest. Even in the midst of these findings, she prayed that God would heal her son. God could do a miracle unlike anything she had seen. Only when Hilary held her baby, Jack, in her arms for the first time did she realize God had given her something drastically different than what she had demanded. Hilary struggled to talk to God as she sat for six weeks beside Jack's crib in the NICU. She consented to surgeries and learned to care for a breathing tube and gastronomy button. In her experience with motherhood Hilary had become more familiar with the sound of her son's heart monitor than the sound of his heartbeat. Later, during surgeries and emergency trips back to the hospital with her crying, breathless boy, Hilary reproached the stranger God had become. Jack was different. Hilary was not the mother she once imagined. God was not who Hilary knew before. But she could not let go of one certainty-she could see the image of Christ in Jack's face. Slowly, through long nights of wrestling and longer nights of silence, Hilary cut a path through her old, familiar faith to the God behind it. She discovered that it is by walking out onto the water, where the firm ground gives way, that we can find him. And meeting Jesus, who rises with his scars to proclaim new life, is never what you once imagined.
Made Like Martha: Good News for the Woman Who Gets Things Done
Katie M. Reid - 2018
This practical resource invites modern-day Marthas to sit down spiritually as they exchange try-hard striving for hope-filled freedom without abandoning their doer's heart in the process. Doers need to be affirmed in their innate design to do rather than sit, yet also be reminded that they don't have to overdo it in order to be worthy. This book is not an exhortation to add or subtract things off your to-do list, but it is an invitation to embrace the "good" of the Good News. Here is an offer to step into your position as a daughter of God and to enjoy life as a doer.
Encountering Our Wild God: Ways to Experience His Untamable Presence Every Day
Kim Meeder - 2018
Our God is extreme. Our God is unstoppable, unfathomable, and untamable. Our God is wild. And he is beckoning us to pursue him beyond our circumstances, beyond our emotions, and beyond our logic into the glorious mystery that is him.Offering miraculous, inspiring stories of lives and circumstances transformed by the Holy Spirit, author and speaker Kim Meeder shows that God isn't calling us to fully understand him; he's calling us to fully trust Him. Here she gives practical, everyday ways to pursue him more passionately and to trust him more fiercely. The wild beauty and glory of our God are calling. And in this hallowed, thrilling place, we will see his face reflected in the miraculous--and we will experience the limitless nature of our wild God.
Taming the Tongue: The Power of Spoken Words
Alex Uwajeh - 2014
However, it's the way you use them that has the real power. When you have an optimistic frame of mind, you're far more likely to recognize opportunities when they arise. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. The way you use and choose words defines who you are. Words have power. God created the world with words. The Bible plainly says, we shall decree a thing and it shall be established. Are you ready to harness the real power of spoken words?
A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey with Your Kids about Sex
Kevin Leman - 2004
We like to surprise parents who ask us, When do I start talking about sex? The answer is, you've already started. self-image may seem, you can do it--and you must. Your child's future depends on it. Fortunately, you've got plenty of guidance and insight available in A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey with Your Kids about Sex. guide you safely along the sometimes rocky road of pubescence as your child heads toward adolescence. This practical and engaging book covers his or her development not just from the waist down, but also from the neck up, where the important decisions about sex are made. knowledge and biblical wisdom. It is a book of firsts: first bra, first shave, first period, first nocturnal emission, first school dance, first discussion about relating to the opposite sex. A Chicken's Guide takes on the difficult things parents face with their kids today, such as dating relationships, sexual activity and rite of passage attitudes, STDs, molestation, and more. cultivating a relationship with your child. Get ready to acquire some unanticipated life skills in the process. Moms, discover how to buy that first athletic supporter for your son in Little League. Dads, learn how to navigate the feminine hygiene aisle at the supermarket for your daughter. You'll do more than meet your child's physical needs. You'll create the trust, support, and security he or she needs in your relationship. And in turn, you'll gain a credible voice on such intimate topics as what sexual intercourse is and why to abstain from sex until marriage. and Dr. Leman's winsome, lighthearted approach, you'll gain confidence for those difficult but essential talks. Here are the tools you need to help your kids not only understand their growing bodies, but cope with the temptations and social pressures that go with them.
My Daily Pursuit: 365 Devotions with A.W. Tozer
A.W. Tozer - 2013
Snyder, a pastor in Tozer’s church denomination who has exclusive access to a treasure trove of unpublished Tozer content, we have Tozer’s teachings on a vast number of topics. And now, for the first time, there is a new daily devotional featuring never-before-published content. The famed evangelist Leonard Ravenhill, who knew Tozer personally, said, “To enter into Dr. Tozer’s presence was an awe-inspiring event.” Now, with My Daily Pursuit, readers will be able to do even more as they enter into the presence of Jesus every day through this awe-inspiring book
Where the Light Fell
Philip Yancey - 2021
But when Yancey was in college, he uncovered a shocking secret about his father's death--a secret that began to illuminate the motivations that drove his mother to extreme, often hostile religious convictions and a belief that her sons had been ordained for a divine cause.Searching for answers, Yancey dives into his family origins, taking us on an evocative journey from the backwoods of the Bible Belt to the bustling streets of Philadelphia; from trailer parks to church sanctuaries; from family oddballs to fire-and-brimstone preachers and childhood awakenings through nature, music, and literature. In time, the weight of religious and family pressure sent both sons on opposite paths--one toward healing from the impact of what he calls a "toxic faith," the other into a self-destructive spiral.Where the Light Fell is a gripping family narrative set against a turbulent time in post-World War II America, shaped by the collision of Southern fundamentalism with the mounting pressures of the civil rights movement and Sixties-era forces of social change. In piecing together his fragmented personal history and his search for redemption, Yancey gives testament to the enduring power of our hunger for truth and the possibility of faith rooted in grace instead of fear."I truly believe this is the one book I was put on earth to write," says Yancey. "So many of the strands from my childhood—racial hostility, political division, culture wars—have resurfaced in modern form. Looking back points me forward."
Victorious Emotions: Creating a Framework for a Happier You
Wendy Backlund - 2017
Victorious Emotions will help create happiness as your default emotion. Even if we have unhappy circumstances, we can build a system of beliefs that, as effortless as the tides, will always bring us back to joy.Victorious Emotions gives powerful, practical strategies to live out Romans 12:2, which says to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. The word "renewing" in the Greek means renovation. This book is about renovating and reconstructing the pathways and strongholds of our thinking. It explores how our brains create certain belief systems and how to intentionally create new ones.The goal of this book is not to focus on eliminating negative emotions, but to build a tidal wave of victorious emotions that are pulled into our lives as easily and surely as the ocean tides will appear every day. It is time to be overtaken by emotions that lead us into victory!
The Missional Mom: Living with Purpose at Home in the World
Helen Lee - 2010
Do you see motherhood as a mission and divine calling? Today's Christian moms come from a full range of personal and professional contexts, whether they are homemakers, full-time workers in the marketplace, or somewhere in between. Yet many Christian mothers are living missional lives, using their gifts and abilities to further God's kingdom by engaging the world around them. They artfully, passionately, and sometimes messily juggle multiple callings and demonstrate in their modern-day contexts how they are emulating the woman of noble character in Proverbs 31. The Missional Mom will affirm Christian mothers who desire to not only to build their homes in a Christ-like way, but also engage the world with their skills, abilities, and interests. It won't minimize the importance of a woman's role in her home, but it will encourage her to not ignore the stirrings God has planted within her to extend her influence.
21 Days of Breakthrough Prayer: The Power of Agreement
Jim Maxim - 2018
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:19–20). Are there things in your personal life, your loved ones’ lives, or your church life that desperately need to change for the better? Have you been yearning for real spiritual breakthrough in the challenging situations you face? Have you ever considered that God is just waiting for His people to cry out to Him in prayer together? The prayer of agreement is one of the most powerful gifts that God has provided for victory in our Christian lives. He has promised us that He will respond to this time of focused prayer as we seek His face together. Join Jim and Cathy Maxim and Daniel Henderson for twenty-one days of agreeing prayer, and see how different things can be as believers go to God together to experience a time of intimacy and intercession that will forever change the way we pray, think, and act regarding the gift of prayer. More than just a book printed on paper, this 21-day movement is interactive. At the end of each devotional reading, you can visit www.acts413.net and join Jim, Cathy, and Daniel for a powerful time of agreeing prayer. Enter God’s presence with them daily, praying for the power of the Holy Spirit to sweep through your circumstances with the breakthrough that you need in your life, and in the lives of those you love.
My Time with God: Renewed in His Presence Daily
Joyce Meyer - 2017
Those writings comprise My Time With God, the 365-day devotional that shares powerful insight into Joyce's spiritual reflections and journey. Each daily entry guides readers through a narrative of meditations, an uplifting declaration, and relevant scripture to encourage greater intimacy with God. Including spiritual revelations experienced by one of the world's leading Bible teachers, this book will renew readers' minds, offering assurance of God's complete love and desire for closeness with them.