You can't force a toddler to love broccoli. You can't make a teenager "not date him." And you can't make a kid love God. Can you? At some point it just starts to break down. That's why we wrote Playing for Keeps. It's a book for parents and leaders (and anyone else who influences the lives of kids and teenagers) about six things you can give a kid over time that will make a significant impact. These six things can help give a kid the kind of history that will show them why they matter to God. But Playing for Keeps is really two books in one. On the flipside is a short story called Losing Your Marbles that makes these six ideas come to life.Playing for Keeps/Losing your Marbles is a book for anybody who interacts with a kid or teenager every week--from a parent to a coach to Small Group Leader. Anybody. Playing for Keeps explores six things every kid needs over time, and provides 18 practical ideas for anybody who wants to make what really matters matter more.

    Called to Adoption offers tips, and up-to-date, relevant information every parent considering adoption should know. Readers will identify with author Mardie Caldwell s personal and professional experiences, making this resource a vital handbook as parents take steps to adopt. This book allows hopeful adoptive parents to discover: -The single most important decision to make before beginning any path to adoption. -How to select the right adoption professional. -Creative ideas to fund your adoption. -The proven formula for adoption success. -The shocking need for Christian Adoption. -Encouragement from God s word throughout the adoption process. -How to quickly get started toward adoption. Called to Adoption also outlines the differences between types of adoption and offers step-by-step guidance to adopt safely and successfully. Featuring stories from Caldwell s own adoption experience, as well as from other adoptive parents, this book will prepare adopting parents for the logistic and emotional sides of adoption. This book is recommended for Christians interested in becoming adoptive parents, or who may support those facing an adoption journey, as well as for those who want to understand the need for Christian adoption. As founder and CEO of Lifetime Adoption Center, Caldwell has assisted thousands of families find answers to questions regarding the decision to adopt. This book also includes a special section for families considering the decision about moving from fertility treatments to adoption."

    Into that cultureour culturePeter speaks of hope and offers joy as he points believers home to heaven. Juan Sanchez brings his experience of ministry in the US and Latin America, and his pastoral wisdom and insight, to this wonderful epistlean epistle that every Christian needs to treasure today.

    This unique collection of original essays features contributions by Mona Simpson, Meg Wolitzer, Susan Cheever, Sara Bird, Naomi Wolf, and other contemporary female writers on the joys and frustrations of the first year of motherhood.

    In this concise book, respected apologist Rebecca McLaughlin outlines the evidence that Jesus was a real person, explaining the reliability of the Bible's accounts of his life and why believing in a virgin birth is not as ridiculous as it might sound.This book shows that there is a rational basis for the belief that the world's most famous story is fact, not fantasy--and how those events in history can infuse our lives today with meaning and joy.

    As the darkness has crept in, your brave prayers may have given way to fearful pleas that your kids would experience God's kingdom—in a safe and comfortable way. This generation needs heroes of the faith and your child can be one of them, but that will require you to be strong and BRAVE. You and I must call out the bold Christ followers within our children and help them face the unknown future with divine confidence. Brave Moms, Brave Kids is an equipping tool that will help you...identify the qualities present in true greatnessreject "mommy fears" and replace them with immovable truthlearn strategies for praying for and training your children more effectivelydevelop seven key lessons we must teach our children to live for JesusCourage starts with you, Mama. If you're going to raise a hero, you must become a hero—because brave kids need brave moms. Let's do this, together. Love, Lee

    Looking forward to a long and happy union, she wrote to her father for advice.

    The acclaimed author of The Book of the Dun Cow moves from his role as master storyteller to that of counselor and husband in this extraordinary look at the makings of a happy, successful marriage.

    To ask for help feels like defeat. Yet when we try to do it all by our own strength, we end up depleted, lonely, and ineffective. Heather MacFadyen wants you to know that you are not meant to go it alone. Sharing her most vulnerable, hard mom moments, she shows how moms can be empowered by God, supported by others, and connected with their children. With encouragement and insight, she helps you foster the key relationships you need to be the mom you want to be.Whether you work or stay home, whether you have teenagers or babes in arms, you'll find here a compassionate friend who wants the best--not just for your kids but for you.

    In the critically acclaimed prayer memoir from Patricia Raybon, the award-winning author and journalist sets out to learn the secrets of mountain-moving prayer. But will her broken marriage, a dying husband and her determination to pray for her household lead to a healed family and a renewed faith? In the page-turning depths of I Told the Mountain to Move, Raybon wrestles with her upbringing in a strict, churchgoing family, her departure from her childhood faith, and her struggle to return to God in adulthood. This wonderfully written book reaches across racial, denominational, and cultural lines, as Raybon discovers that prayer is a deliberate discipline that draws the prayer warrior into a life-changing relationship with God.

    Its many exceptional features include…the 2011 ESV text, an essentially literal translation that seeks to capture the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer a 32-page explanation of the inductive study method, teaching readers how to observe, interpret, and apply the text to their everyday lives four full-color pages with step-by-step instructions for studying and marking the text individualized instructions for every book of the Bible 24 pages of full-color charts and maps and dozens of unique study helpsThis Bible gives believers all the tools they need to discover the riches of God’s Word!

    When he and his wife lost their adored little girl, his trust in God turned to bitter anger. As he and his wife struggled to save their marriage and his faith, they discovered that home is more than just rooms and a roof. Home is a place where people are sometimes wounded or betrayed. Home is also where God is strong in the broken places. Woodlief takes readers through his house, room by room, showing that home is: • Where we cry out to God as we seek him in the small things • Where the sacred and the mundane meet • The place that makes us better than we could ever be on our own • More than the place where we eat and sleep…it is where we learn grace Woodlief’s heart-touching stories leavened with humor will appeal to a wide audience, especially those trying to reconcile the idea of a loving God in a broken world.

    Miller’s down-to-earth approach and practical nature will help you see that your relationship with God can grow and your communication with Him can get better. Parents will find Miller’s family-life experiences especially helpful.

    There are literally thousands of books available on how to live various aspects of the Christian life. Of these, at least a couple of dozen pertaining to family life and child training are well worth reading.This is not one of those books.This book is designed to help you take what you have read, as well as all the sermons, teachings, and exhortations you have received on child training and leadership in the home, and make sense of it.Pastor Tad Thompson has assembled a biblical approach to effective family discipleship. Among other insights in this book, he identifies seven key areas of parental focus: • The Gospel• The Big Story (Biblical Theology)• The Big Truths (Systematic Theology)• The Great Commission• Spiritual Disciplines• Christian Living• WorldviewBy identifying the right ingredients for family discipleship, and by providing guidelines for creating your own plan of implementation, Intentional Parenting can prepare you for a lifetime of learning and teaching. This is not another book of tactics and techniques. It is a clear, encouraging, accessible book of strategy for parents who want to be intentional about discipleship in the home.

    It is also, fortunately, not a matter of luck. There are many things to understand about how children’s minds operate and what they need from those who look after them so they can develop into the best version of themselves.The Good Enough Parent is a compendium of lessons, including ideas on how to say 'no' to a child one adores, how to look beneath the surface of 'bad' behaviour to work out what might really be going on, how to encourage a child to be genuinely kind, how to encourage open self expression, and how to handle the moods and gloom of adolescence.Importantly, this is a book that knows that perfection is not required – and could indeed be unhelpful, because a key job of any parent is to induct a child gently into the imperfect nature of everything. Written in a tone that is encouraging, wry and soaked in years of experience, The Good Enough Parent is an intelligent guide to raising a child who will one day look back on their childhood with just the right mixture of gratitude, humour and love.