Are we still called to God’s plan of how to love when we are getting none in return? Shauna Shanks’s brave journey through obedience reveals the outcome of when we dare to follow God’s ludicrous outline for love as described in 1 Corinthians 13.Wrecked with news of her husband’s affair and his request for a divorce, Shauna finds herself urgently faced with a decision. Does she give up and divorce her husband and move on, or does she try to fight for her marriage? The former choice seems to contradict God’s plan for how to love, such as “love never gives up,” “love is patient,” and “love is kind.”Taking God at His word and assuming the love chapter was really meant to be followed literally word by word, she not only finds herself falling in love with her spouse again, but also falling in love with Jesus, which changes everything.First Corinthians 13 presents an audacious, illogical, and irrational context of how to love, meant to be applied to every marital context not just the fairytale marriage. If God’s instructions seem illogical and audacious, you might just expect the same kind of results in return!This book is not air-brushed. It was written in the midst of the author’s deepest trauma, and she purposefully did not edit out her mistakes and failures during that season. This book will resonate with women who do not feel like the picture-perfect Christian woman with the fairytale life and marriage.A Fierce Love is the story of a train wreck and reaching out to God not in the calm but in the chaos and finding hope for the future.

    In this transformational book, the authors have used ground-breaking research to develop four primary patterns of relating to one another that shed light on our actions--and how we can learn to love and be loved even better.

    . . trials will inevitably come that threaten your marriage. No matter how long you’ve been married or how strong your relationship is, sooner or later you are going to have a mess to clean up.Messy Beautiful Love is about cleaning up messes God’s way, exchanging your ideas for His, and being prepared for both the best and the worst that marriage has to offer. When you surrender your relationship to God, then and only then will you experience the blessing of marriage as He intended. This is the blessing of obedience.Messy Beautiful Love is an invitation to that obedience. The cynical world says marriages don’t last, but God knows better. Tune out the world and tune in to Him. When you do that, a beautiful marriage is not only possible, it’s inevitable.

    Are you stuck in the past? Don't know how to heal beyond what happened to you back then? Are you tired of repeating the mistakes of your parents? Author Mary DeMuth helps you understand your past, embrace healing today, and anticipate an irresistible future.Through biblical teaching, real life in-the-trenches examples, and an eye toward spiritual growth, author Mary DeMuth helps you live the uncaged life you've always wanted.

    The answers--and her discoveries--may surprise you.This unique, entertaining, and thought-provoking personal account will challenge women to throw out their preconceived notions of what a submissive wife looks like and seek fresh leading from God for their lives and marriages today.

    Ready for it?"God is here."It may sound obvious at first, but truly understanding these three words is the key to more happiness, less boredom, more rest, less rush, more love, less drama, more peace, less fear.A deeply satisfying life doesn't require a sabbatical, a mission trip, or a New Year's resolution. As long as God is glorious enough and near enough, you can enjoy the life that is truly life--not just the cheap substitutes we've settled for.This book will help you move from just enjoying the good moments in life to worshiping the God who is right here, right now. This movement will exponentially increase your happiness, peace, and contentment. It will allow you to shake off the guilt and shame of sin and see yourself as God sees you. Learn how to recognize God's impact on your life and find the joy he's been waiting to give you.

    Why can't you work a full-time job, stylishly clothe yourself and your children, plan a party for twelve with handmade decorations, keep your house sparkling clean without chemicals, and bake a gourmet meal in the same day? Everyone else is doing it! For many women, housework has become more than chores that need to be done; it is a symbol of identity. Sheila Wray Gregoire wants to stop that thinking in its tracks and help women back to a life of balance--for their sakes and for their families. She encourages women to shift their focus from housekeeping to relationships and shows them how to foster responsibility and respect in all family members. The second edition retains the helpful, concrete advice on everyday situations such as strategies for tackling chores and budgets and tips on effective communication, while incorporating the wisdom Sheila has gained through her interaction with thousands of readers of her blog and through her speaking ministry over the past ten years. Through the principles in To Love, Honor, and Vacuum, Gregoire promises readers they can grow and thrive in the midst of their hectic lives-even if their circumstances stay the same.

    Elyse Fitzpatrick believes that understanding this topic can bring about great freedom and a more meaningful relationship with Christ and your husband. In Helper By Design, she takes an in-depth theological look at what it means to be made in God's image to be a helper. No matter what your perspective, this book will set in motion great heart changes as you grow toward becoming the woman God has called you to be.

    On the beach you'll be laughing and crying between the changing of the tides. Take a ride with the main character, Lily Clarke, as you contemplate her and your own lasting legacy. Lily Clarke, the elderly mother of three dysfunctional and distant daughters, makes life altering discoveries regarding her new found wealth and other dark secrets, after she receives a diagnosis that she has a terminal illness. The challenges and decisions she must face in her final months will define her lasting legacy. To execute her plan, she invites her three dysfunctional and distant daughters to her home for a short stay to determine you will receive her new found wealth. Her plans become disrupted when dark secrets emerge, questioning her decision making and the meaning of her entire life. The book includes family dysfunction, drama, humor, an a bit of historical fiction. From the book: Chapter 1: The old saying goes that everyone has a story. Unfortunately today, October 2, 2016, Lily Elizabeth Clarke’s story was coming to a quick end. It was a sunny day at the Sacred Heart Cemetery in Dundalk, Maryland, as cars began pulling up shortly after noon for her 1:00 p.m. funeral. Old rusted smoke stacks from a bankrupt steel mill could be seen in the background of the cemetery in this gritty part of Baltimore. Neighborhoods with seventy-year-old brick weathered rowhouses surrounded the neatly manicured cemetery. The funeral was taking place exactly as Lily had arranged it. No details were left out of the planning. While she was alive, she made sure that her funeral, burial arrangements, and reading of her Last Will and Testament were organized and would be executed exactly to her wishes. No one knew what would take place over the next twenty-four hours and weeks to follow except Lily, and she was deceased. Not even her lawyer and confidant, Jake Snyder, knew all of the hidden details that Lily had intentionally failed to disclose to him; some of which had remained bottled and silenced for a lifetime. He had been Lily’s lawyer for more than twenty years, and over the next two days, he would implement her final plan exactly as she had instructed. Jake knew her for almost his whole life and thought he knew everything about her, but he didn’t know the dark secrets about her past or the ones she intended to reveal in stages following her death. The health crisis that led to Lily’s death was nothing compared to the mental struggle she faced as a result of the long forgotten secrets resurfacing during the final months of her life. Lily’s struggle whether to reveal her secrets while she was alive and how to reveal them after her death would change lives and define her legacy. Lily didn’t want to have a formal viewing at a funeral home. She wanted her funeral to be short and sweet at the gravesite, so that everyone could get on with their lives. Lily’s three daughters didn’t remain close to her after they graduated from college and settled in the state of their college alma maters. Lily was unsure why her children didn’t stay close to her. She wasn’t sure if it was her sometimes overbearing husband or the fact that her children wanted to get out of the dirty blue-collar town Baltimore was in the 1970s. Maybe they were a little rebellious, stubborn, and adventurous, all rolled into one. In truth, Lily often wondered if the secrets she harbored created impenetrable barriers in her relationship with her daughters. However, it seemed the longer they were away from Baltimore, the further they grew apart from Lily, and she didn’t have the strength or courage to correct the situation. ...

    With competing priorities and rival demands, we're more confused than ever in how to live the life Jesus offers. Is it the church way, the American way, or the busy way? With so many ways facing us, we're more paralyzed than alive; more perplexed than sure; more bewildered than confident. The Jesus Life offers eight compelling ways to help us rediscover what it really means to follow Jesus in the 21st ccentury.

    Through inspiring real-life testimonies, Paula Rinehart writes as both a kindred spirit and a compassionate counselor to women feeling robbed of their passions and trapped by life's disappointing realities. Women who long to be released from the burden of hard choices and perpetually empty souls will be empowered to rediscover dreams long lost and refocus energy misguided. Strong Women, Soft Hearts cries out for women to embrace passion and approach life as something to be lived, not merely survived.

    Is it any wonder pastors are overwhelmed and underappreciated? They’re expected to know every member by name, preach a “home run sermon” every Sunday, condemn sin without hurting anyone’s feelings, and be available to serve others 24/7 while not neglecting their own family. The intensity of these expectations and lack of appreciation can and does bring the majority of pastors to a place of despair and ultimately departure from pastoral ministry. This practical field guide offers tangible ways to better understand and care for the pastor who cares so deeply about you.

    This useful reference work for pastors, counselors, and personal study can also be read straight through for a scriptural overview of the topic or assigned in small sections to counselees.

    She is of immense value to God. She is precious to Him. She is His daughter, an heir of the promise, a co-heir of the grace of life with you. Do you feel that? Does it make your chest knot up? Do you get a little bit afraid? Maybe a lot afraid? Good. Hold that pose.In recent decades, we have essentially reduced marriage to a permanent roommate situation with sexual benefits. But marriage is not about something as low-stakes as “who gets to control the remote.” Your husband or wife is no mere mortal, but an eternal soul who is going to grow closer to God or further from Him because they are married to you. Add children to the mix—even more eternal souls! That’s why the biblical picture of the family is something far more powerful, far more dangerous, far more glorious—far more like a nuclear reactor—than anything else in modern society.No Mere Mortals: Marriage for People Who Will Live Forever shows how husbands can lead their wives, and how wives can follow their husbands, and how both together, building on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ, can shape future generations and the world.

    But what about organizing the other side of our lives—the spiritual side?One of the great battlegrounds of the new century is within the private world of the individual.The values of our Western culture incline us to believe that the busy, publicly active person in ministry  is also the most spiritual.Tempted to give imbalanced attention to the public world at the expense of the private, we become involved in more programs, more meetings. Our massive responsibilities at home, work, and church have resulted in a lot of good people on the verge of collapse.In this timely update of his classic Ordering Your Private World, Gordon MacDonald equips a new generation to live life from the inside out, cultivating the inner victory necessary for public effectiveness.