Power Families

That’s the real life story of country music star Jimmy Wayne. It’s a miracle that Jimmy survived being hungry and homeless, bouncing in and out of the foster care system, and sleeping in the streets. But he didn’t just overcome great adversity in his life; he now uses his country music platform to help children everywhere, especially teenagers in foster care who are about to age out of the system. Walk to Beautiful is the powerfully emotive account of Jimmy’s horrendous childhood and the love shown him by Russell and Bea Costner, the elderly couple who gave him a stable home and provided the chance to complete his education. Jimmy says of Bea, “She changed every cell in my body.”

Boldly original and fully documented, this unauthorized yet definitive biography tells the almost incredible story of Joseph P. Kennedy, grandson of a poor Irish immigrant, controversial founder of a great American fortune, and father of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy.

Have you ever felt stuck in life? Or perhaps your life doesn’t look the way you thought it would right now; maybe that dream is just beyond your reach as the words Not Yet appear stuck on repeat. Are your fears, failures, and imperfections trying to define your future the longer you are “on hold”? In The Power of Not Yet, Donna Pisani focuses on four powerful principles that not only changed her life but have done the same for countless others as well. If you long to get moving, discover what God made possible in you, and be the world changer God has called you to be, then this book is for you.

As a teen, do you feel like every possible problem has decided to gang up on you? From bodily changes to school workloads, restrictive home rules, and peer pressure. Are you convinced your mental health is about to crumble at any moment, and are stress and anxiety building up? Or, are you a parent frustrated about not knowing how to help your teen? Everyone knows how topsy-turvy a teen's world can get and how that can make life difficult for parents as well.

Now, with The Golden Hour, Specktor blends memoir, cultural criticism, and narrative history to tell the story of the modern motion picture industry—illuminating the conflict between art and business that has played out over the last seventy-five years in Hollywood. Braiding his own story with that of his father, mother (a talented screenwriter whose career was cut short), and figures ranging from Jack Nicholson to CAA’s Michael Ovitz, Specktor reveals how Hollywood became a laboratory for the eternal struggle between art, labor, and capital.

When Jeremy and Emily Freeman’s teenage son Caleb was in a devastating car accident, doctors gave him a 10 percent chance of survival. Fear of losing a child was all too fresh for the Freemans—their seven-year-old son, Trey, had died just four years earlier from a genetic immunodeficiency. But God. In #butGod Jeremy shares the incredible story of Caleb’s recovery, the darkness that nearly overtook their family in the waiting, and the #butGod movement that captured the prayers of Christians around the world.

When my parents drop in for an unscheduled visit, a hastily prepared spare room reveals a dark secret. A skeleton is hidden inside the closet walls, and the dead body was a pixie! With rapid-fire revelations coming from my mother and an invisible creature stalking the library, it's hard to grab a moment's peace. Add to that an enraged uncle - the same one who tried to cheat me out of my inheritance - and I'm halfway to wishing I'd never heard of Oakleaf Glade.

Christian teens care very much about their connection and relationship with God, but they are also experiencing all the ups and downs of teenage life, with the attendant joys and sorrows of growing up. This book, filled with stories written by Christian teens for Christian teens, helps teens who care about their faith navigate their teenage years.

Our society is riddled with men behaving badly. Sexual harassment, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and misogyny run rampant through politics, Hollywood, professional and amateur sports, college campuses, and our daily work environment. Change happens when parents embody and model what they want to see in their children. The nine lessons presented in Dissolving Toxic Masculinity are designed to help us raise boys who embrace an attitude of compassion, empathy, kindness, and respect for women. It's time we rise to the challenge.

In We Live for the We, first-time mother Dani McClain sets out to understand how to raise her daughter in what she, as a black woman, knows to be an unjust—even hostile—society. Black women are more likely to die during pregnancy or birth than any other race; black mothers must stand before television cameras telling the world that their slain children were human beings. What, then, is the best way to keep fear at bay and raise a child so she lives with dignity and joy?

Conquerors, Brides, and Concubines investigates the political and cultural significance of marriages and other sexual encounters between Christians and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula, from the Islamic conquest in the early eighth century to the end of Muslim rule in 1492. Interfaith liaisons carried powerful resonances, as such unions could function as a tool of diplomacy, the catalyst for conversion, or potent psychological propaganda.

A curious thing happens when Jesus comes into his ministry: He touches. Jesus touches the sick and the outcast, the bleeding and the unclean. What could it mean for families, singles, marriages, churches, communities, and the world to have healthy, pure, faithful, ministering touch? Somewhere in the mess of our assumptions and fears about touch, there is something beautiful and good and God-given. As Jesus can show us, there is ministry in touching.

Ali and her parents have moved at least once a year for as long as Ali can remember. She’s attended six different schools, lived in dozens of apartments, and never really felt at home anywhere. But Ali’s parents say living in Saint John, New Brunswick, will be different. They’ve moved in with Ali’s great-grandmother - a lively 99-year-old with a quirky old house and room for all of them. Ali wants to believe it will be their last move, but everything seems too perfect to be true.

Marigold "Goldie" Vance lives and works at the Crossed Palms Resort Hotel in Florida with a whole slew of characters: her dad, Art, the manager of the joint; Cheryl Lebeaux, the concierge and Goldie's best friend; and Walter Tooey, the hired hotel detective. Her mom, Sylvie, works nearby at the Mermaid Club. While life at the Crossed Palms is always busy, the resort is currently overrun with Hollywood-types filming the hottest new creature feature, and tensions are at an all-time high.

Every day, adolescent girls face a complex and challenging social world influenced by popularity. As parents, we benefit from having the resources to help our daughters navigate times of difficulty and vulnerability because with the right support, these experiences can also deliver girls with their greatest learnings. In this groundbreaking book, clinical psychologist Dr. Mary Kaspar deconstructs popularity and its links to our girls' well-being. She illustrates how the type of popularity that most girls crave is not the type that will improve their lives.

Imagine a generation of children who are empowered, confident, and victorious - children who know God for themselves, who live differently than the world, and who move in the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. Bethel Church’s children’s minister, Amy Gagnon, has a passion to help children make authentic, supernatural connections with Jesus. In Raising Powerful Children, she elevates the standard for what it means to train kids up in the “way they should go” by empowering parents and teachers to establish a kingdom culture among children of all ages.

In The Invisible Toolbox, Kim shares with parents the single most important thing they can do to foster their child's future-learning potential and nurture the parent-child bond that is the foundation for a child's motivation to learn. She is convinced that the simple act of reading aloud has a far-reaching impact that few of us fully understand and that the importance of that act has recently been further occluded by our nearly universal saturation in technology.

In the intricate tapestry of human existence, a profound and sacred power lies hidden—the power to heal, transcend, and reclaim the divine essence of your True Self. What’s Going on With My Family? A Roadmap to Healing Trauma, Unlocking Your Hidden Power, and Remembering What Is Sacred is your North Star on an extraordinary expedition—a transformative journey that will rewrite the story of your family for generations to come.

Society thrives when the family thrives. A family thrives in wholeness and completion. Take the king or queen off a chess board and the game doesn’t go as it should. You take the queen, and every other piece is exposed and vulnerable. You take the king, and the game is over. Sadly, we’ve watched incompleteness in the family increase dramatically in our lifetimes. There are certainly many factors at play in that reality, but the one I want to target here is a powerful one. It’s the Dad factor.

There is no higher praise we can give people than to say they have good character. But what does this mean, really? What makes this quality so essential to achieving personal success and fulfillment? More importantly, how can we build our own character and live more satisfying lives? Reflecting society's diversity, the contributors to this unique collection of essays speak from various cultural and professional backgrounds to share their observations on living with integrity, honesty, and compassion.