The Making of Men


Arne Rubinstein - 2013
    For this to happen, it’s vital we understand their world, their challenges, and how our relationship with them must change as they become young men.Using real-life examples, parenting expert Dr Arne Rubinstein clearly explains the risks teenagers face today, including drugs, alcohol, technology and peer group pressure. He then shows how you can equip your son to make safe and sensible choices.Whether you’re a single mum of a happy-go-lucky eight-year old, or the parent of a troubled teen, The Making of Men is a practical, commonsense guide to helping your son transition from a boy to a young man who is motivated and inspired.‘Funny, encouraging, gritty and real.’Steve Biddulph, bestselling author of Manhood and Raising Boys

First Impressions: Creating Wow Experiences In Your Church


Mark L. Waltz - 2004
    This means church leaders need to create no-fail; practical ways to ensure a visitor's first impression is the best impression. Author Mark Waltz shares the strategies that work in his church--and takes "greeting" to a whole new level.When guests feel valued, they will return. And when they do, they'll have the opportunity to experience Jesus' love. Let visitors know "You matter to God, so you matter to us."Adapt these practical ideas to your church's unique setting, and it won't be long before everyone feels welcome: Learn how to create a church that's welcoming to guests with strategies on:— developing senior leadership— traffic flow— the walk to the door— to shake hands or not?— directional signs or people? Address the philosophy, strategy and implementation of a ministry that welcomes first-time and returning guests. Gain sure-fire, practical ways to make the first impression the best impression.

When Your Adult Child Breaks Your Heart: Coping with Mental Illness, Substance Abuse, and the Problems That Tear Families Apart


Joel L. Young - 2013
    This parent may initially react with the bad news of their adult child behaving badly with, "Oh no!" followed by, "How can I help to fix this?" A very common third reaction is the thought, "Where did I go wrong--was it something I said or did, or that I failed to do when my child was growing up that caused these issues? Is this really somehow all my fault?" These parents then open their homes, their pocketbooks, their hearts, and their futures to "saving" their adult child--who may go on to leave them financially and emotionally broken.  Sometimes these families also raise the children their adult children leave behind: 1.6 million grandparents in the U.S. are in this situation.       This helpful book presents families with quotations and scenarios from real suffering parents (who are not identified), practical advice, and tested strategies for coping. It also discusses the fact that parents of adult children may themselves need therapy and medications, especially antidepressants. The book is written in a clear, reassuring manner by Dr. Joel L. Young, medical director of the Rochester Center for Behavioral Medicine in Rochester Hills, Michigan; with noted medical writer Christine Adamec, author of many books in the field.          In the wake of the Newtown shooting and the viral popularity of the post "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother," America is now taking a fresh look, not only at gun control, but also on how we treat mental illness. Another major issue is our support or stigmatization of those with adult children who are a major risk to their families as well to society itself.  This book is part of that conversation.

Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family


Paul David Tripp - 2016
    But if moms and dads view their role through the lens of God's grace, they will see that the gospel must first shape how they parent before they can effectively shape their children. In this highly practical book, Paul David Tripp unfolds a more biblical perspective on parenting than merely adhering to a list of rules. He lays out fourteen gospel-centered principles that will radically change the way parents think about what it means to raise up a child, informing everything they do as a parent.

The Family Board Meeting: You Have 18 Summers to Create Lasting Connection with Your Children


Jim Sheils - 2015
     If you could do one thing that you knew would dramatically strengthen your family in just a few hours, would you do it? That's the question we pose in the Family Board Meeting, the simple guide to reconnecting with your children that has spread around the globe. Discover the elegant and powerful strategy that promises to: *Connect you more deeply with your children *Reduce "screen sucking" and device dependence *Make each child in your family feel important and unique *Help you feel more open and authentic with your children *Increase your happiness at home *Building an enduring family legacy of connection and memories The Family Board Meeting is a carefully designed, easy-to-follow guide to creating quality time with your children. It takes only minutes to plan your first Board Meeting... and it's guaranteed to be a ton of fun for both you and your child! Welcome to the most important meeting of your life.

The Essential First Year


Penelope Leach - 2010
    Those who are used to managing their time in the workplace can be tempted to try to manage their infant in the same way. So-called "controlled crying" has been recommended by many recent childcare guides, but parents should be aware of the high cost of such methods to their baby. In The Essential First Year Penelope Leach shows parents how they can reach a harmonious balance between their baby's needs and their own. While babies and their needs have not changed, our lifestyles have, and Penelope Leach has written the perfect manual for busy 21st century parents, which spans from pregnancy to the child's first birthday. The book is a gentle, but timely reminder that the fundamental purpose of having children is to share happiness. The happier a baby is, the more parents will enjoy being with him or her; being responsive to one's baby does not mean that it has to be at personal expense - the happiness of parents and baby is inextricably intertwined. The Essential First Year is not just full of sensible, practical advice, it is backed by more than ten years of new research into infant development, especially in brain growth, which now confirms, for instance, just how much fathers matter to their infant's progress, how girls' and boys' brains are different at birth (and developdifferently) and how helping a baby to be calm, contented, amused, and interested leads to optimum development of body and brain. Using such information, Penelope Leach shows parents how to deal with problems as well as how to prevent them. Every parent wants to do the best for their baby and for the child that the baby will become. The Essential First Year gives parents the knowledge and the tools to nurture and care for every aspect of their infant's life - to meet the baby's physical needs, to stimulate their intellectual development and ensure their emotional well-being - and most importantly, The Essential First Year helps parents to simply enjoy being parents.

The Titus 2 Woman


Susan Godfrey - 2011
    This type of woman is truly becoming an endangered species! It’s a sad fact, but modern churches are just not teaching the “aged women” to become Titus 2 mentors and women just are not stepping up to mentor the younger women in the church. This is part of the reason I think so many of the young women in today’s church are floundering and turning away from Godly womanhood. They are just not being taught how to be Godly women. Too many churches today are pushing a twisted form of womanhood that has more in common with feminism and worldly standards than Godly standards. It is truly a sad state!Just what traits does the Bible say a Godly woman should posses? Titus 2: 3-5 lays these traits out to us in a simple and plain way. The aged women likewise, that [they be] in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, [To be] discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. — Titus 2:3-5(KJV)When you look at these verses, you can plainly see that what God requires from a Godly woman. “The Titus 2 Woman” by Susan Godfrey, dissect these eleven qualities to help us understand exactly what is expected of us as we grow and mature as Christians.

Mom Enough: The Fearless Mother's Heart and Hope


Tony ReinkeTrillia J. Newbell - 2014
    When the issue hit newsstands, it re-ignited a longstanding mommy war in American culture. But it turns out this was the wrong question, pointing in the wrong direction. There is a higher and more essential question faced by mothers: Is he God enough? This short book with twenty-four short contributions from seven young mothers, explores the daily trials and worries of motherhood. In the trenches, they have learned how to treasure God and depend on his grace. The paradox of this book is the secret power of godly mothering. Becoming mom enough comes as a result of answering the burning question above with a firm no.

Raising Girls


Melissa Trevathan - 2007
    Is this normal?" "Yesterday my seventh grader was all sunshine. Today she's wearing black and won't leave her room." "I'm worried my teenager may have an eating disorder."In today's complex world, parenting a girl is harder than ever. It takes more than love. It takes insight into the things that make your daughter tick as she grows from childhood to young adulthood.Drawing on the authors' fifty-plus years of combined counseling experience, Raising Girls takes you inside the mind and soul of your girl. You'll obtain seasoned, expert insights onYour daughter's different stages of development from ages zero to nineteenHow you can effectively relate to her at each stageWhat is normal behavior, what isn't, and when and how to interveneHow to deal with self-destructive behavior such as eating disorders, cutting, or experimentation with alcohol. . . and much moreSpiced with stories, humor, and much reassurance, Raising Girls will help you encourage your daughter, challenge her, love her, and help her discover who God is creating her to be.

Need to Breathe


Tara Staley - 2012
    All Millie Rose can do at first is stare into the blinding lights of the NICU and hear doctors demanding answers about the burns on Claire’s body. Nurses panic, they cry and shout “she’s bradying down!” because, Lord help them, they’ve never seen anything like this.Neither has Millie. Although she died in childbirth in 1922, she still has a purpose. Her afterlife is filled with missions lasting anywhere from ten minutes to ten years, and she views her newest assignment as a second chance at motherhood. But she's got to act fast because Claire's lungs are weak, her heart rate keeps tanking, and her pH levels are low. The hospital has never had a 26-weeker pull through. Millie also tries to counsel Claire’s troubled parents, Mick and Manda, through the emotional fallout. They see marriage as the best “band-aid,” but Claire’s birth always haunts them, to the point Manda becomes a chain-smoking pill-popper who paints her house completely white. Mick becomes a reclusive binge-eater who sleeps in the barn. And Claire comes-of-age wondering about it all-- why she’s so sick, why she has scars on her skin, and what’s the secret her parents are keeping?Finally, there’s a good reason why Millie nudges Claire to find true love years later with the geeky guy down the street. True, Charlie Vance may build his own batteries and dissect dead animals, but his love for Claire drives his decision to attend medical school so he can take care of her the rest of her life. NEED TO BREATHE takes an unthinkable crisis and turns it into a gripping story filled with sensitivity, hope, beauty…even humor. From the opening chapter, readers will root for Claire’s chance at happiness, for the Harpers to heal, and for Millie’s reconciliation with her own lost motherhood.

I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids: Reinventing Modern Motherhood


Trisha Ashworth - 2007
    Funnily enough, most moms agree they have no idea how they get it done, or whether they even want the job. Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile spoke to mothers of every stripe - working, stay-at-home, part-time - and found a surprisingly similar trend in their interviews. After enthusing about her lucky life for twenty minutes, a mother would then break down and admit that her child's first word was "Shrek." As one mom put it, "Am I happy? The word that describes me best is challenged." Fresh from the front lines of modern motherhood comes a book that uncovers the guilty secrets of moms today . . . in their own words. I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids diagnoses the craziness and offers real solutions, so that mothers can step out of the madness and learn to love motherhood as much as they love their kids.

Raising an Original: Parenting Each Child According to their Unique God-Given Temperament


Julie Lyles Carr - 2016
    In parenting eight kids over the last twenty-five years, Julie Lyles Carr and her husband experienced plenty of opportunity for learning, but it was when they began to understand it was about parenting each child according to their own unique needs and personality style that something wonderful happened. In Raising an Original, Carr helps to redefine the primary purpose of Christian parenting, this raising of the next generation. God has given each of our children specific gifts, abilities and capacities for specific purposes and He can equip parents to discover and support those powerful personality traits if they know where to look and how to respond. So many kids raised in Christian homes launch into their adult lives without any sense of knowing who they are called to be or what their mission on earth is. What if parents, teachers or mentors could help them discover the wondrous, unique threads woven within them that will enable them to see their part in the fabric of God’s universe? Readers of Raising an Original will be equipped to help their children:Understand their unique strengths and the challenges associated with themDiscover their God-given gifts and how to use them for His glorySucceed regardless of their circumstances Raising an Original will provide readers with tools for better communication with their children as well as tools for uniquely guiding and disciplining each unique child.  With a helpful and detailed Personality Trait Assessment Tool included as a major part of the book, readers will understand themselves, their parenting style, and their child better. They will also discover ways to improve their children’s communication within sibling groups and with parents themselves. Readers will find freedom in discovering that God hasn’t asked them to raise perfect children; He’s asked them to uniquely raise purposed children.

Your No Guilt Pregnancy Plan: A revolutionary guide to pregnancy, birth and the weeks that follow


Rebecca Schiller - 2018
    It almost makes me want to have another child. Almost' Bryony Gordon ***Your No Guilt Pregnancy Plan is a revolutionary new guide to pregnancy and childbirth that puts the power firmly in your hands. It won't tell you what fruit your baby resembles week-by-week, but it will cover the huge shifts happening in your relationships, body, work and emotional life right now, giving you practical tools, tips and real stories to help you make a plan that is uniquely yours yet flexible enough to accommodate whatever your pregnancy, birth and life throw at you.***Further Praise for Your No Guilt Pregnancy Plan***'The book has everything a pregnant woman needs ... I'm sure this will be the go-to book for women in years to come' - Helen Thorn host of the Scummy Mummies podcast'Rebecca is a living, breathing Wonder Woman heroine. In a sea of complicated, important and sometimes angry debate around childbirth, she is a mast to hold onto.' - Cherry Healey, presenter and author of Letters to My FannyI can't think of a panicky question I had thought of through either of my pregnancies (and I thought of them at a rate of five per second) that wouldn't have been answered by this book. I wish I had had it, in fact. A very empowering guide to becoming a mother.' - Robyn Wilder, The Pool

A Willful Bride for the Tortured Duke


Emma Linfield - 2020
    Left in the care of their cousin and his cruel wife, they are torn from their family home and moved to London.Alexander Barnet, the Duke of Dewmire, guards his heart like a stolen secret. Having already lost love once in his lifetime, trusting his heart to someone new seems daunting. Until the day he meets Eliza, and the tune her fingers play, strum against the strings of his heart.With a persistent charmer vying to drive him out and Eliza’s chaperone dictating her every move, their love seems doomed to fail. An unexpected tragedy brings them closer until a rainy night comes with dangerous tidings. A letter detailing the event that destroyed Alexander’s life and a promise to do it again...

The Wild Child


Anne Baker - 2007
    There's no problem with mousy Hilary, but Isobel is a wayward beauty who can never forgive her plainer sister for stealing her boyfriend, and will be pregnant before she marries. Worse, the father of Isobel's baby isn't her new husband – and when the truth comes out, her marriage is likely to hit the rocks. Hilary's life seems to be moving along more calmly, until her husband is badly injured in an accident. And as she takes charge of his business Hilary also faces the discovery that her adored children are struggling at school. There's hope if the sisters can pull together at last – but can they ever put the past behind them?