Marriage Growth

The love that the world tells us to pursue is all about self, about following your heart’s desires. But what is the Christian worldview on love? When we follow Jesus, we realize that he invites us to reorient the focus of our lives, so instead of chasing love primarily for our own happiness, we are first and foremost to give love - to God and to others.

Explore the spiritual dynamics of parenting, and why caring for children is such an effective discipline in shaping our souls and forming the character of Christ within us.

Jim Daly, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, is an expert in fatherhood - in part because his own 'fathers' failed him so badly. His biological dad was an alcoholic. His stepfather deserted him. His foster father accused Jim of trying to kill him. All were out of Jim's life by the time he turned 13. Isn't it odd - and reminiscent of the hand of God - that the director of the leading organization on family turned out to be a guy whose own background as a kid and son were pretty messed up?

You Can Start Over Again...Many Christians become so discouraged because of their sins and failures that they give up on ever having fellowship with God again. They also fear that their broken relationships will never heal. For everyone who has wished for a fresh beginning, here is good news. This gentle, affirming work emphasizes how much God wants his wandering children to return to him.

Nearly every marriage starts out happy, and if we're honest, nearly every marriage at some point becomes unhappy. Is there a solution? Kevin and Marcia Myers, married for 37 years through nearly every challenge a couple can face, emphatically say yes. Rooted in Scripture and contemporary insights from the Myers' marriage, as well as real stories from other couples, this revelatory book shows how any marriage can regain depth, meaning and, yes, happiness.

Wesley Hill writes for gay Christians and those who love them. Part-memoir, part theological reflection, Hill shares the struggles that gay Christians face as they seek to live faithful to God's "no" to homosexuality.

As Jeremy and Audrey write, if you can fall into love, you can fall out. True love is something you choose to live out each day through your actions, decisions, and sacrifices. To find and still seek, now that is love. From the moment you meet your potential spouse, you can be intentional about shaping a beautiful love story, uniquely written for who God created you both to be.

Known from the television show Little People, Big World, their Behind the Scenes podcast, and their first book, A Love Letter Life, Jeremy and Audrey Roloff have shared over the years how their dating relationship grew into a strong marriage. Now they offer a sweet but practical book for anyone who wants to help a relationship thrive. Whether you are beginning a new dating relationship, are recently engaged, or have been married for decades, Creative Love provides fresh ideas on how to make a loving relationship sustainable.

What do you do when someone you love leaves? And how do you pursue someone who has hurt you, who has sinned against you? In Letting Go, pastors Dave Harvey and Paul Gilbert share stories of pain and stories of hope as they reveal how to care for the prodigal who has strayed. Whether you are dealing with an unfaithful marriage partner, a rebellious child, or a wayward friend, the counsel they offer will help you to pursue a gospel-rooted approach, grounded in truth and practiced in the midst of Christian community.

Throughout Keep Showing Up, Karen includes ideas to implement in your marriage right now, such as powerful statements to speak to your spouse, date-night-on-a-shoestring suggestions, and discussion starters. Discover how your "incompatibility" can become the strength of your marital team in this real-life guide to both living with and loving your spouse - differences and all.

Rob and Kristin Bell introduce a startling new way of looking at marriage, The Zimzum of Love. Zimzum is a Hebrew term where God, in order to have a relationship with the world, contracts, creating space for the creation to exist. In marriage, zimzum is the dynamic energy field between two partners, in which each person contracts to allow the other to flourish. Mastering this field, this give and take of energy, is the secret to what makes marriage flourish.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part of the book focuses on maintaining a single Christian life. This is not an easy task, but it can be accomplished by a Christian placing his or her trust in God. With God's help, a Christian can draw closer to God so that Satan won't fan the flames of a single Christian's sexual desires, causing him or her to fall prey to sexual immorality.

We're facing an identity crisis. For decades our culture has tried to blur the lines between men and women, to make gender irrelevant, all in the name of equality. It’s a message that has slowly infiltrated our marriages, our homes, and even our churches. Yet instead of creating harmony, this message has only caused confusion, ultimately leading to a tragic breakdown of relationships and families. Divine Design calls us back to God’s original intent for men and women.

It was only a few years after the starry-eyed young couple got married when scary news threatened to take the wind out of their sails. But Sean Dietrich's wife, Jamie, wouldn't let it. She dared to hope for and plan for a great big adventure, and she made him promise to do it with her. For love and the promise of biscuits along the way, Sean—who was never an athlete of any kind—undertook the bike ride of a lifetime and lived to talk about it. In this true-life tale, storyteller Sean Dietrich shares their hilarious, touching, and sometimes terrifying story of the long bike ride.

Love is easy to give when you are getting it back. 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?

Como Saber qual a vontade de Deus para sua vida? Como entender o que Deus quer de nós, quando precisamos tomar decisões difíceis? Há alguma orientação nas Escrituras que ajudam os cristãos a reconhecerem a vontade de Deus? Deus manifesta sua vontade para cada decisão da vida do Homem? Essas são perguntas legítimas e muitos cristãos a enfrentam diariamente, especialmente diante de dilemas e decisões difíceis.

Join beloved bestselling authors John and Stasi Eldredge as they guide you through Wild About You, 60 days of uplifting devotions that will lead you to a life of passion, freedom, and adventure, all while strengthening your hearts for each other.

The sad truth is that when it comes to modern dating, there are a whole host of challenges and hurdles to overcome. This is not a dating book that promises to find you a person to love; it will help you spot the troublesome ones before it is too late. It will help you to recognise that you possess spectacular buff ting energy and that it's perfectly possible to be contentedly single. It will empower you to use your voice and walk away if you spot warning signs in relationships, by highlighting the red flags, as well as the green flags, and signs that indicate a healthy partnership.

Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott and Dr. David Olson - renowned marriage experts and founders of the two largest marriage support organizations, SYMBIS and PREPARE/ENRICH - share what they have learned from decades of research involving more than five million couples. Packed with practical and proven methods, data-driven techniques, and immediately usable strategies, Helping Couples is the ultimate guide for coaches, counselors, and clergy who want to know what really works.

God has blessed Joel and Mary Beeke with a wonderful marriage. God has also given them the opportunity to counsel many people in troubled marriages as well as to provide premarital counseling to scores of engaged couples. In How Can We Build a Godly Marriage?, the Beekes share 10 principles they emphasize in their counseling. Perhaps you and your spouse are due for a checkup in your relationship. If so, carefully consider the important marks of a God-glorifying marriage found in this booklet. Strive to put these things into practice, and your marriage will be better for it!