Personal Spiritual Growth

If you've ever been given empty clichés during challenging times, you know how painful it can feel to be misunderstood by well-meaning people. Far too often, it seems the response we get to our hurt and disappointment is to suck it up or pray it away. But Scripture reveals a God who meets us where we are, not where we pretend to be.

Years of counseling enabled Dr. Henry Cloud to observe people trying to work out the most important issues of life. If we sincerely want to "get life right" and quit repeating the same mistakes, 9 Things You Simply Must Do provides the practical guidance we need to live life to its fullest.

Unfortunately, children don’t come with operating instructions, so raising even the most compliant kids can sometimes be disconcerting. Acknowledging that some youngsters are more challenging than others, Dr. James Dobson offers real help with establishing parent-child relationships, maintaining sanity, and banishing guilt. A Doctor of Philosophy in child development and the founder of the international organization Focus on the Family, Dr. Dobson has become one of America’s most respected family therapists.

Everybody wants to be loved. We all need affirmation, acceptance, and approval. Let's face it: It feels good to be appreciated and admired. But when we depend on the approval of others to feel good about ourselves, it's impossible to have emotional stability or a healthy self-image. And when our value is based on how people see us rather than God's unconditional love for us, our desire for approval can become an addiction.

A deep connection with God is not only possible, but vital to a vibrant life. And this powerful, forty-day devotional will help you enjoy the deeper life with God that you long for. With Closer to God, written by Bible teacher Jeannie Cunnion, you will be equipped to remove the barriers to experiencing God in your daily life; enjoy the life-altering benefits of His tangible presence, or "withness"; and live Spirit-strong in a profoundly new way.

Hearing God Through Your Dreams is a practical and powerful guide to understanding the language that God speaks at night. Through revelatory teaching, supernatural stories, and a refreshing, down-to-earth approach, Mark Virkler and his daughter Charity will help you identify the priceless messages with which the Lord has infused your dreams.

Bestselling author of Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth invites you live a more theologically robust and biblical life as you learn how art, cinema, music, philosophy, psychology, apologetics, church history, and most importantly Scripture, can deepen your understanding and enjoyment of God. Throughout the book, you'll find stories from brilliant living theologians and leaders, including Joni Eareckson-Tada, Michael Horton, John Perkins, Fred Sanders, each sharing how a particular divine attribute has impacted their personal lives.

Growing up in the green room of SNL, being born to a fire-eater and adopted by a SWAT cop, having internal organs explode, and adopting a deaf girl from China, Scarlet Hiltibidal has been given some strange life experiences - and lived in fear through most of them. But life changed for Scarlet when she learned to hold the gospel up to her fears and realized that though she can't fix herself or protect herself, Jesus walked into this broken, sad, scary place to rescue, love, and cast out her - and your - fear.

If you've ever felt this way about your marriage, you're not alone. Marriage is hard. Every couple comes to a place of disappointment and distance at one point or another. The good news is that your relationship can get better. If you're both willing to work at it, it can work out. Teacher, author, and creator of "Living the Sweet Wife" Chelsea Damon has coached thousands of couples through the hardest seasons of their marriage. In I Thought This Would Make Me Happy, she'll help you take your first steps to a renewed and life-giving marriage.

Single? Looking for the "right person"? Thinking that if you met the "right person" everything would turn out "right"? Think again. In The New Rules for Love, Sex, and Dating, pastor and best-selling author Andy Stanley explores the challenges, assumptions, and land mines associated with dating in the 21st century. Not for the faint of heart, this practical and uncensored guide takes a fresh approach to dating and love in the modern era by turning the search for "the one" or "Mr./Mrs. Right" back onto the searcher themselves.

"God has a plan for our lives", but what does that mean in practical terms? How do we know God's will for important life decisions, like who to marry, what job to take, what church to join? How can we be free if God has a perfect plan for us? Does suffering mean we are off track? How exactly does God speak? Author Jerry Sittser explores these questions and offers a biblically based approach that is truly liberating.

How do we hear from God and discern his will when it’s time to make big decisions? Terry Looper shares a four-step process for doing just that - a process he has learned and refined over 30 years as a Christian entrepreneur and founder of a multibillion-dollar company.

Do work that matters. Productivity isn't just about getting more things done. It's about getting the right things done - the things that count, make a difference, and move the world forward. In our current era of massive overload, this is harder than ever before. So how do you get more of the right things done without confusing mere activity for actual productivity? When we take God's purposes into account, a revolutionary insight emerges. Surprisingly, we see that the way to be productive is to put others first.

Author and pastor David Kim shares his experiences with loneliness as a Korean American immigrant and delivers compelling research about belonging that includes the revolutionary five anchors for developing meaningful relationships.

Wait! Stop! Don't say it! Pegues knows how easily a few careless words can cause problems in our business and personal relationships. Here she offers 30 warm-hearted Scripture-based devotions to help you take control of that hasty, gossiping, belittling, know-it-all, retaliatory tongue . . . before you really put your foot in your mouth!

In Growing Up Social, Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane will empower you with the necessary tools to make positive changes starting today. Through stories, wit, and wisdom, you’ll discover how to take back your home from an overdependence on screens. Plus, you'll learn to teach the five A+ skills that every healthy child needs to master: affection, appreciation, anger management, apology, and attention.

Self-criticism is often our default setting. But we can have a more gracious posture toward ourselves. We can practice disciplines of self-kindness. Editor and spiritual director Cindy Bunch calls us to self-care through greater compassion for ourselves. She helps us pay attention to the frustrations that bug us in order to identify negative thinking about ourselves or others. As we do so, we can discern what we need to let go. This allows us to lean into the things that bring us joy. Each chapter is filled with spiritual practices and creative exercises for reflection and celebration.

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.

Rhythms of Renewal is your guide to daily rescue and a way forward into the peace your soul longs for. As a society, we are in the throes of a collective panic attack. Anxiety and loneliness are on the rise, with 77% of our population experiencing physical symptoms of stress on a regular basis. We feel pressure chasing careers, security, and keeping up. We worry about health, politics, and many other complexities we can't control. Eventually, we find our minds spinning, trying to cope or manage a low hum of anxiety, unlike ever before.

Have you ever felt that your life - and budget - is spiraling out of control? Do you sometimes wish you could pull yourself together but wonder exactly how to manage all the scattered pieces of a chaotic life? Is it possible to find balance? In a word, yes. Ruth Soukup knows firsthand how stressful an unorganized life and budget can be. Through personal stories, biblical truth, and practical action plans, she will inspire you to make real and lasting changes to your personal goals, home, and finances.