#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A candid, inspiring guide to finding lasting love and sustaining a healthy relationship by getting real about your goals—based on the viral, multi-million-view sermon series about dating, marriage, and sex “No matter where you are and no matter what stage of life you are in, Relationship Goals will be a game changer.”—Levi Lusko NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY COSMOPOLITAN You scroll through photo after photo of happy couples and think, I want a relationship like that! The thing is, those intimate relationships are a mirage—the closer you get to them, the more you realize they aren’t real at all. So what does a real relationship look like? And how do you get there? In Relationship Goals, Pastor Michael Todd digs deep to give you good news and real-life ideas for making the most of your most important relationships. Take a look at • what it means to choose intentional dating over recreational dating • how to move on from mistakes you’ve made in the past • why love gets stronger after marriage • what the Bible has to say about sex (hot take: it’s more sizzling than you think) • why the best friendships have God at the center Whether you are married, single, or it’s complicated, aiming for the right targets will make all the difference in finding true satisfaction. As it turns out, God’s got the best relationship goals of all for your life. Why settle for less?
Preserving Individuality to Strengthen Your Relationship -- Developing the Skills for Communicating in an Intimate Relationship -- Dealing with Anger Constructively -- The Act of Loving -- A Few Final Words -- Acknowledgments -- References
Whether you’re newly together and eager to make it work or a longtime couple looking to strengthen and deepen your bond, Eight Dates offers a program of how, why, and when to have eight basic conversations with your partner that can result in a lifetime of love. “Happily ever after” is not by chance, it’s by choice– the choice each person in a relationship makes to remain open, remain curious, and, most of all, to keep talking to one another. From award-winning marriage researcher and bestselling author Dr. John Gottman and fellow researcher Julie Gottman, Eight Dates offers an ingenious and simple-to-implement approach to effective relationship communication. Here are the subjects that every serious couple should discuss: Trust. Family. Sex and intimacy. Dealing with conflict. Work and money. Dreams, and more. And here is how to talk about them—how to broach subjects that are difficult or embarrassing, how to be brave enough to say what you really feel. There are also suggestions for where and when to go on each date—book your favorite romantic restaurant for the Sex & Intimacy conversation (and maybe go to a yoga or dance class beforehand). There are questionnaires, innovative exercises, real-life case studies, and skills to master, including the Four Skills of Intimate Conversation and the Art of Listening. Because making love last is not about having a certain feeling—it’s about both of you being active and involved.
A dysfunctional relationship is any relationship in which you find yourself struggling to force change, give advice, control, or fix problems. The difficulty can be due to an addiction, mental illness, abuse, a trying personality, irresponsibility, or anything else that interferes with a healthy relationship. The relationship may be breaking or already broken under the strain of the problems.When Love Hurts provides practical and scriptural tools to help you transform your dysfunctional relationship. The 10 principles in this book will help you to experience freedom--to let go and love your loved one, and to experience peace, trust, and joy in the midst of the storm. It will even provide you with tools that increase the chance that your loved one will change--the very thing that you have been trying to make him or her do and have failed. One day at a time, you will begin to change and heal. Visit Karla's website at KarlaDowning.com
All of us have a money story. A story that we tell ourselves about what we can afford, what we should buy, why we shouldn't spend, and about the real power of money. But many of us never examine these money stories, which are the same stories that keep us living in chronic cycles of binge spending, money hoarding, and financial amnesia for our whole adult lives. These forms of financial dysfunction cripple us, erode our confidence, and leave us burdened by guilt, shame, and anxiety. They threaten to leave us financially and emotionally bankrupt if we don't learn how to break free from the chaos and heal our relationship with money for good. Fortunately, our relationship with money does not have to be a major source of stress in our lives. In fact, our relationship with money can actually be a source of joy and provide us with peace of mind once we learn how to care of it, listen to it, and respond to the messages it sends to us. heal your relationship with money guides you through 28 days of money lessons, financial introspection, and daily "lifework" to help you examine your financial past and connect with your true financial voice. The spiritual tools and financial guidance of heal your relationship with money allow you to rewrite your money narrative so it empowers you and transforms how you relate to your money life.
Relationship Reset reveals the secrets to becoming a better couple through exposing valuable information from current research and identifying critical insights that make relating easier. By reading Relationship Reset you will learn: The Core Elements--define what's "normal" for your relationship to experience and how to navigate through the tough spots. The Mind Benders--learn to take personal, thought shifting actions that will change your relationship for the better. The Muscle Builders--engage in exercises together that will strengthen and stabilize your love for a lifetime. Crafted specifically for all couples, Relationship Reset focuses on making committed relationships last by offering simple and essential skills in an interactive format. Whether at the beginning of your union or well down the road, this book will revolutionize your relationship
“An amazing resource for anyone who desires to deepen their mother-daughter relationship in a biblical, healthy, and healed way.” —Lysa TerKeurst, New York Times bestselling author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries You can be restored even when your relationship is frayed Ever wonder why mothers and daughters can be so different and even seem to speak different languages? Mended gives you conversation starters to speak life into your relationship with your mother or daughter. Discover powerful words that usher in healing for wounded hearts and rebuild, restore, and reconcile your connection. Set new patterns going forward as you… find common ground and put your relationship ahead of your differences learn what to say when you don’t know what to say grow closer when you do hard things together If you have a difficult history with your mother or daughter, you don’t have to continue patterns of brokenness. No matter how worn you feel, you don’t have to become unthreaded. God wants to mend your heart to His and to hers.
Fascinating patient stories and dynamic exercises help you connect to healing emotions, ease anxiety and depression, and discover your authentic self. Sara suffered a debilitating fear of asserting herself. Spencer experienced crippling social anxiety. Bonnie was shut down, disconnected from her feelings. These patients all came to psychotherapist Hilary Jacobs Hendel seeking treatment for depression, but in fact none of them were chemically depressed. Rather, Jacobs Hendel found that they’d all experienced traumas in their youth that caused them to put up emotional defenses that masqueraded as symptoms of depression. Jacobs Hendel led these patients and others toward lives newly capable of joy and fulfillment through an empathic and effective therapeutic approach that draws on the latest science about the healing power of our emotions. Whereas conventional therapy encourages patients to talk through past events that may trigger anxiety and depression, accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP), the method practiced by Jacobs Hendel and pioneered by Diana Fosha, PhD, teaches us to identify the defenses and inhibitory emotions (shame, guilt, and anxiety) that block core emotions (anger, sadness, fear, disgust, joy, excitement, and sexual excitement). Fully experiencing core emotions allows us to enter an openhearted state where we are calm, curious, connected, compassionate, confident, courageous, and clear. In It’s Not Always Depression, Jacobs Hendel shares a unique and pragmatic tool called the Change Triangle—a guide to carry you from a place of disconnection back to your true self. In these pages, she teaches lay readers and helping professionals alike • why all emotions—even the most painful—have value. • how to identify emotions and the defenses we put up against them. • how to get to the root of anxiety—the most common mental illness of our time. • how to have compassion for the child you were and the adult you are. Jacobs Hendel provides navigational tools, body and thought exercises, candid personal anecdotes, and profound insights gleaned from her patients’ remarkable breakthroughs. She shows us how to work the Change Triangle in our everyday lives and chart a deeply personal, powerful, and hopeful course to psychological well-being and emotional engagement.
Karla Downing focuses on the importance of accepting ourselves so we can be at peace with who God created us to be and learn to become all He intends us to be.