Family Ministry

A blogger and homeschooling mom of three, Jessica Smartt shares her family’s journey out of monotony, distraction, and busyness to a life of making lasting memories and how families can take those memories, together with old and new traditions, to breathe life into their homes.

Parenting isn't rocket science, it's just brain surgery. And Dr. Joshua Straub has good news for you: You can do it! You don't need to do all the "right" things as a parent. Both science and the Bible show us that the most important thing we can provide for our kids is a place of emotional safety. In other words, the posture from which we parent matters infinitely more than the techniques of parenting. Emotional safety - more than any other factor - is scientifically linked to raising kids who live, love, and lead well.

Scripture is filled with examples of men and women whom God used late in life, often with great impact—Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elizabeth, and Anna, to name a few. They were ordinary men and women who discovered that the latter years of life can be some of the most rewarding and fulfilling. “For them, growing older wasn’t something to be denied or dreaded;” says Billy Graham, “it was to be embraced as part of God’s plan for their lives.” Billy Graham’s life and ministry have been dedicated to the here and now but always with a happy-ever-after in view.

What your marriage will become is determined by how you pray. Bold prayers honor God. God honors bold prayers. Praying Circles Around Your Marriage will empower you and your spouse to identify your greatest dreams for the most important relationship in your life and pray the kind of audacious prayers in which God finds delight.

It's time to stop trying to be the perfect mom. You long to be the mom your kids need, but often you're convinced you come up short. The label "not enough" seems to be stamped across everything you do - and yet parenting is the one thing you want most to get right. What if the solution is simply to embrace the truth that you are not enough - but God is?

This best-selling classic encourages and equips Christian men to lead their families successfully through hazards and ambushes like divorce, promiscuity, suicide, and drug addiction. Men will find practical insight on topics such as a father's influence, maintaining purity, and husband-and-wife teamwork. In this war, renowned men's author Steve Farrar emphasizes, Jesus Christ is looking for men who will not die, but live for their families.

More than a million couples can't be wrong! And with this updated edition of their award-winning book, Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott help you launch lifelong love like never before. This is more than an audiobook - it's an experience. Get ready for deeper intimacy with the best friend you'll ever have. Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts, in more than 15 languages, is the most widely used marriage prep tool in the world.

Sticky Faith delivers positive and practical ideas to nurture within your kids a living, loving faith that lasts a lifetime. Research indicates that almost half of high school seniors drift from their faith after graduation. This easy-to-listen guide presents both a compelling rationale and a powerful strategy to show parents how to actively encourage their children’s spiritual growth so that it will stick with them into adulthood and empower them to develop a living, lasting faith.

While parents long to better influence and express love to their children, they often have no clear plan of action. As a result, daily hopes turn into years of missed opportunities. The Love Dare for Parents helps busy moms and dads more fully cherish, enjoy, and impact each of their children during each season of their lives. From the writers of the original Love Dare (over five million copies sold), this new 40-day journey will help you to daily demonstrate love to your sons and daughters and keep your relationships respectful and close...long-term.

When children have a listening companion who hears, acknowledges, and encourages their early experiences with God, it creates a spiritual footprint that shapes their lives. How can we increase our capacity to engage children in spiritual conversations? In this audiobook, Lacy Finn Borgo draws on her own experience of practicing spiritual direction with children. She offers an overview of childhood spiritual formation and introduces key skills for engaging conversation-posture, power, and patterns - from a Christ-centered perspective.

Over the years, you willingly pour everything you have into your family, but in the process, you lose the essence of who you are. In her characteristic raw and visceral style, Rachel teaches you how to rewrite the pages of your story, follow your passion, and discover the beauty of who you are. Drawing on lessons from her own incredible journey - together with insight from conversations with thousands of other women - Rachel encourages moms to break cycles, take off masks, and prevent fear from taking control.

The transition from "married" to "married with children" can be tough. Before they know it, a once youthful and energetic married couple finds themselves in a minivan loaded with noisy kids and littered with Cheerios, crusty Sippy cups, banana peels, and missing library books. As much as you love your children and work hard to nurture and train them for the future, the challenges that come with parenthood can make the "for better or for worse" promise a hard one to honor.

What does it take to get along for a lifetime? Men and women share a deadly problem that kills good relating. The problem is this: We are committed, first of all, to ourselves. Each of us, without blushing, holds fast to an overriding concern for our own well-being. Sharing people's stories and personal anecdotes, Crabb explores how we can turn away from ourselves and toward each other, how we can become what he calls "other-centered."

Josh Hamilton was the first player chosen in the first round of the 1999 baseball draft. He was destined to be one of those rare "high-character" superstars. But in 2001, working his way from the minors to the majors, all of the plans for Josh went off the rails in a moment of weakness. What followed was a four-year nightmare of drugs and alcohol, estrangement from friends and family, and his eventual suspension from baseball.

What does it take to raise great kids? If you've read any books on parenting, conflicting opinions have probably left you feeling confused. Get tough! Show acceptance. Lay down the rules. Lighten up, already! There's got to be a balance - and there is. Joining their expertise with the wisdom of MOPS International (Mothers of Preschoolers), Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend help you provide both the care and acceptance that make grace real to your child and the firmness and discipline that give direction.

Nearly everyone wants to go to heaven when they die. Nearly everyone assumes they will go there. And yet the Bible paints a picture of the "road that leads to eternal life" being found and traveled by few. Careful students of the Scriptures often find themselves wondering, How can I be sure of my salvation? Veteran Bible teacher Donald S. Whitney guides us carefully and patiently through the Bible's teachings on salvation and eternal life - steering us clear of misplaced confidence and pointing us always toward Christ, our hope.

Have More Fun is for anyone who has forgotten that fun is an option. In a world where political dramas and cultural uncertainties churn through our news feed every day, Mandy is here to suggest that the answer to many of the most pressing questions is fun.

Using kings of the Old Testament as character studies, Steve Farrar examines the critical role a father plays in preparing his son to become a godly man. What separated the good kings from the bad kings was a father who made time commitments to mentor his son, by modeling biblical manhood. Do you want your son to become a man of regal character? Then this book is for you!

Your children will either live forever with Jesus or apart from him. Too many growing up in Christian homes will not follow Christ as adults. Do you have a strategy for parenting in today's hostile culture?

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 those other books, 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 all. Pastor Tad Thompson has assembled a biblical approach to effective family discipleship.