Book picks similar to
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: A Memoir of Finding Faith, Hope, and Happily Ever After by Trish Ryan
non-fiction
memoir
relationships
memoirs
Between the Dreaming and the Coming True: The Road Home to God
Robert Benson - 1996
For those who have questioned their Christian faith, Robert Benson offers an account of his sojourn in a season of trouble and his journey back to God. In this spiritual self-portrait, Benson's experiences--battling depression and re-examining the deep Christian faith in which he has been immersed since childhood--become poignant testament of one believer's struggle with the mysteries of faith's road.
Bamboozled by Jesus: How God Tricked Me into the Life of My Dreams
Yvonne Orji - 2021
Known for interpreting Biblical stories and metaphors to fit current times, her humorous and accessible approach to faith leaves even non-believers inspired and wanting more.The way Yvonne sees it, God was the Sovereign Prankster long before Ashton Kutcher, running around getting folks punk’d—but in the best way possible. When she meditates on her own life—full of unanticipated roadblocks and unforeseen blessings—she realizes it’s one big testimony to how God tricked her into living out her wildest dreams.In BAMBOOZLED BY JESUS, a frank and fresh advice book, Orji takes readers on a journey through twenty life lessons, gleaned from her own experiences and her favorite source of inspiration: the Bible. She infuses wit and heart along with practical pointers—such as why being talented is not as sexy as being available, and how fear is similar to food poisoning—with the goal of helping others live the most fulfilling, audacious life possible.With bold authenticity and practical relatability, Orji will inspire everyone to catapult themselves out of the mundane and into the magnificent. BAMBOOZLED BY JESUS paints a powerful picture of what it means to say “yes” to your most rewarding life—no matter your beliefs.
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.
Growing Up Amish
Ira Wagler - 2011
At seventeen, in the dark of night, he left the religious settlement, but it was only nine years later that he finally left the church for good. His favorite Bible verse is from Psalm 34: "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." In this new memoir, he tells what it was like growing up Old World Amish and what it felt like leaving it for a strange new world. Far more than picturesque; Growing Up Amish conveys one man's heartfelt experience.
A Book Of Silence
Sara Maitland - 2008
She fell in love with the silence, and in this profound, frank memoir she describes how she explored this new love, searching for silence and solitude.
Welcome to the Funny Farm: The All-True Misadventure of a Woman on the Edge
Karen Scalf Linamen - 2001
This title covers topics from baby showers to cell phones, chin hair to Hamburger Helper, defrosted turkeys to Barry Manilow, and dumb blonde jokes to well-woman exams. It aims to inspire, entertain and shed light on principles of spiritual wellness and Christian living to enrich the life of the reader.
Water To Wine: Some of My Story
Brian Zahnd - 2016
“I was halfway to ninety—midway through life—and I had reached a full-blown crisis. Call it garden variety mid-life crisis if you want, but it was something more. You might say it was a theological crisis, though that makes it sound too cerebral. The unease I felt came from a deeper place than a mental file labeled “theology.” I was wrestling with the uneasy feeling that the faith I had built my life around was somehow deficient. Not wrong, but lacking. It seemed watery, weak. In my most honest moments I couldn’t help but notice that the faith I knew seemed to lack the kind of robust authenticity that made Jesus so fascinating. And I had always been utterly fascinated by Jesus. What I knew was that the Jesus I believed in warranted a better Christianity than what I was familiar with. I was in Cana and the wine had run out. I needed Jesus to perform a miracle.” –Water To Wine
Double Play
Ben Zobrist - 2014
Written with his wife, Christian singer Julianna Zobrist, and MikeYorkey, best-selling author of Every Man's Battle and Linspired: The Remarkable Rise of Jeremy Lin, the book gives fans a first look into the heart of an athlete whose talent and devotion to God, family, and baseball make him one of the most loveable figures in the Major League today.
Waking Up in Heaven: A True Story of Brokenness, Heaven, and Life Again
Crystal McVea - 2013
They will look at me with their big, innocent eyes and try to make sense of what they're hearing. It isn't always easy explaining what happened even to adults, so how am I going to explain it to my kids?There is so much I want to share with them, so much I want them to know. You see, my story is one of hope and forgiveness and salvation, and of the glorious healing power of God's presence. It's the story of what I saw and what I learned when, during a hospital stay, I left my body for nine minutes and went to heaven and stood before God. And it's the story of how, when I came back to Earth, my life was profoundly and permanently changed; changed down to the very core of my being.But it is also a story that, for the longest time, I didn't want to tell.
The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture
Haley Stewart - 2018
Do you ever feel caught in an endless cycle of working harder and longer to get more while enjoying life less? The Stewart family did—and they decided to make a radical change. Popular Catholic blogger and podcaster Haley Stewart explains how a year-long internship on a sustainable farm changed her family’s life for the better, allowing them to live gospel values more intentionally.When Haley Stewart married her bee-keeping sweetheart, Daniel, they dreamed of a life centered on home and family. But as the children arrived and Daniel was forced to work longer hours at a job he liked less and less, they dared to break free from the unending cycle of getting more yet feeling unfufilled. They sold their Florida home and retreated to Texas to live on a farm with a compost toilet and 650 square feet of space for a family of five. Surprisingly, they found that they had never been happier.In The Grace of Enough, Stewart shares essential elements of intentional Christian living that her family discovered during that extraordinary year on the farm and that they continue to practice today. You, too, will be inspired to:live simplyoffer hospitalityrevive food culture and the family tablereconnect with the landnurture communityprioritize beautydevelop a sense of wonderbe intentional about technologyseek authentic intimacycenter life around home, family, and relationshipsDrawing from Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, Stewart identifies elements of Catholic social teaching that will enhance your life and create a ripple effect of grace to help you overcome the effects of today’s “throwaway” culture and experience a deeper satisfaction and stronger faith.
When I Lay My Isaac Down: Unshakable Faith in Unthinkable Circumstances
Carol J. Kent - 2004
When I Lay My Isaac Down tells their story and shares the transformational power principles they learned about forgiveness and faith.Dealing with her anger, grief, and shame, Carol could have given up. Instead she tells a highly personal, heartbreaking, and uplifting story that will bolster your faith.
No More Sheets: The Truth about Sex
Juanita Bynum - 1998
Juanita Bynum understands the scars that come in the heat of battle. Over the years, God has shown her how to rid herself of layers of "sheets" (bondage) that had affected her work for God. It was a painful process. She learned the hard way, but you don't have to. You can hasten the healing in your own life by gleaning from Juanita Bynum's experience.No More Sheets offers hope. More importantly, it offers some answers that can set you free. After reading this book, there are no more excuses! If you want to enjoy the fullness of God, you must cast off those sheets. You must make a declaration for every future relationship: No More Sheets!
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back
Todd Burpo - 2010
What they weren't expecting, though, was the story that emerged in the months that followed--a story as beautiful as it was extraordinary, detailing their little boy's trip to heaven and back.Colton, not yet four years old, told his parents he left his body during the surgery--and authenticated that claim by describing exactly what his parents were doing in another part of the hospital while he was being operated on. He talked of visiting heaven and relayed stories told to him by people he met there whom he had never met in life, sharing events that happened even before he was born. He also astonished his parents with descriptions and obscure details about heaven that matched the Bible exactly, though he had not yet learned to read.With disarming innocence and the plainspoken boldness of a child, Colton tells of meeting long-departed family members. He describes Jesus, the angels, how "really, really big" God is, and how much God loves us. Retold by his father, but using Colton's uniquely simple words, "Heaven is for Real" offers a glimpse of the world that awaits us, where as Colton says, "Nobody is old and nobody wears glasses.""Heaven is for Real" will forever change the way you think of eternity, offering you the chance to see, and believe, like a child.
The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories from an American Faith
Joanna Brooks - 2012
This groundbreaking memoir brings you into one of America’s most fascinating but least understood religious traditions. With humor, tenderness, and honesty, The Book of Mormon Girl reveals what it’s like to grow up in a world where angels stand at our bedsides and ancestors know our names, where Coca-Cola is forbidden fruit and Marie Osmond is a style icon. This is a story about leaving behind the innocence of childhood belief and embracing the complications and heartbreaks that come to every adult life of faith.
The Middle Matters: Why That (Extra)Ordinary Life Looks Really Good on You
Lisa-Jo Baker - 2019
Welcome to the middle!In these intimate reflections on midlife, Lisa-Jo Baker invites women to get a good look at their middles and gives permission to embrace them--beyond what the media, the mirror, the magazines, or our teenagers say. Through gutsy, beautiful storytelling, she admits out loud what most women are thinking about marriage, parenting, failure, and how badly we all want to buy those matching Magnolia Market mugs. Her delicious stories come from not being afraid of who she is (Your Age is Not a Dirty Word). Because she has finally grown comfortable in her own skin (The Scale is Not the Boss of You). She's not asking you to seize the day, just to make sure you actually see it; for all its wildly ordinary glory (Sobbing in my Minivan Over Honor Roll). Because Lisa-Jo knows that the middle might be the best part of the love story of life, muffin top included.