While writing Maxine’s true-to-life story My Home Sweet Home: Surviving an Abusive Relationship, her heart was cleansed from deep hurt and hatred that nearly possessed her life. God’s grace (unmerited favor) freed Maxine from sin and guilt. Believing Jesus Christ died on the cross, in her place, gave her a new life with Him. The years following have been filled with forgiveness and understanding in her family, a life committed to God with contentment to her church and family. Forgiveness rolls in like a tide, sweeping away all that would hinder us from knowing God.
This is a true-to-life story of a rebellious young girl who fell in love with a handsome young man, became pregnant and married at age 16, and who wanted only to make a happy life in her own “home sweet home” with her husband and children. Her life turns upside down when her husband becomes seriously abusive to her and her four children and she finds herself a victim of not only him, but of her own willfulness not to be proven wrong and her willingness to sacrifice even physical safety for the dream of a happy home. The pain causes her to seek salvation through God and her Savior Jesus Christ. She also finds the meaning of a mysterious prophetic dream she had when in the midst of her turmoil. The fact that she eventually realizes her dream of a “home sweet home” after many years of pain and sorrow is living testimony to the power of God in human life and the lessons of yielding to a higher power.
'I have learned to be content in whatever state] I am'' (Phil. 4:11) Anyone who lacks true contentment may find it in this book. If not, it will be because that one would not follow the very clear and simple instructions given. The teaching is from the Bible, yet it must be described as unique. Nowhere else will you find such unusual, but Biblically authenticated thoughts: He will teach you that contentment lies in subtraction, not in addition; that the ABC's of Christianity are nothing like what you thought them to be; that there is a mystery of contentment, but that once you have learned the way from Christ's word, you will be able to attain such a depth of contentment as you never before dreamed existed. This is a key book for building up Christian maturity. Christian Contentment, what is it? ''It is a sweet, inward heart thing. It is a work of the Spirit indoors. It is a box of precious ointment, very comforting and useful for troubled hearts in times of troubled conditions.
A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.
The beloved bestselling collection of common sense wisdom from a celebrated psychologist and military veteran who proves it's never too late to move beyond the deepest of personal losses After service in Vietnam, as a surgeon for the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in 1968-69, at the height of the war, Dr. Gordon Livingston returned to the U.S. and began work as a psychiatrist. In that capacity, he has listened to people talk about their lives--what works, what doesn't, and the limitless ways (many of them self-inflicted) that people find to be unhappy. He is also a parent twice bereaved; in one thirteen-month period he lost his eldest son to suicide, his youngest to leukemia. Out of a lifetime of experience, Gordon Livingston has extracted thirty bedrock truths, including: We are what we do. Any relationship is under the control of the person who cares the least. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Only bad things happen quickly. Forgiveness is a form of letting go, but they are not the same thing. The statute of limitations has expired on most of our childhood traumas. Livingston illuminates these and twenty-four other truths in a series of carefully hewn, perfectly calibrated essays, many of which focus on our closest relationships and the things that we do to impede or, less frequently, enhance them. Again and again, these essays underscore that "we are what we do," and that while there may be no escaping who we are, we have the capacity to face loss, misfortune, and regret and to move beyond them--that it is not too late. Full of things we may know but have not articulated to ourselves, Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart offers solace, guidance, and hope to everyone ready to become the person they'd most like to be.
MEET YOUR FINANCIAL THERAPIST: Improve your financial literary and heal your relationship with money using this 3-part framework combining mindfulness, radical self-love, and body awareness. “An exciting, important voice to the money conversation . . . at once spiritual and practical, this is the education we've been waiting for.” —Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money For many of us, the most challenging and upsetting relationship in our lives is with our finances—and it often brings feelings of shame or powerlessness. Enter Bari Tessler, your new financial therapist and money-savvy best friend. Her “Art of Money” program gives you the tools you need to improve your financial literary and heal your money anxiety in 3 phases: • Money Healing: Heal money shame through body-based check-ins, transformative money rituals, and by reframing your “money story”. • Money Practices: Learn to approach money as a self-care practice—with advice on values-based bookkeeping, finding financial support, and setting up helpful tracking systems. • Money Maps: Designed to evolve with you over time, the 3-Tier Money Map helps you make good money decisions and affirm your money legacy. Bari Tessler’s gentle techniques weave together mindfulness, emotional depth, big-picture visioning, and refreshingly accessible money practices. A feminine and empowering guide, The Art of Money will help you transform your relationship with money—and in doing so, transform your life. Check out The Art of Money Workbook for more insights and teachings.
“A triumph. This novel’s haunting strength will hold the reader until the very end and make Faith and her story impossible to forget.” —Richmond Times Dispatch “Extraordinary.” —Orlando Sentinel From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult (Nineteen Minutes, Change of Heart, Handle with Care) comes Keeping Faith: an “addictively readable” (Entertainment Weekly) novel that “makes you wonder about God. And that is a rare moment, indeed, in modern fiction” (USA Today).
