Women Spiritual Growth

There are times in life when we look back and feel desperate to make time stand still, especially when unexpected change happens and all we want is for things to go back to how they were. But we can't stop the flow of life, and we can't stop time. And looking back doesn't enable us to go back. It just makes us stuck. In a place. In a space. In a memory. In a mindset. In a habit.

Feeling worn thin? Come find rest. The Blue Ridge Parkway meanders through miles of rolling Virginia mountains. It's a route made famous by natural beauty and the simple rhythms of rural life. And it's in this setting that Hannah Anderson began her exploration of what it means to pursue a life of peace and humility. Fighting back her own sense of restlessness and anxiety, she finds herself immersed in the world outside, discovering a classroom full of forsythia, milkweed, and a failed herb garden.

For anyone who has ever struggled with their identity, Landra Young Hughes has a radically simple message: give up. Specifically, give up your need to be in control of how other people see you. Instead, let God's words - not yours and not others' - define you. Through her own deeply personal story of trying to control her circumstances and others' perceptions of her through an eating disorder, Landra points the way toward a life free from self-obsession and self-resentment.

Author Michelle Van Loon weaves together personal stories and keen insights on the biblical themes of pilgrimage and exile. She will help you embrace your own pilgrim identity and reorient your heart toward the God who leads you home. Engaging and thoughtful, enhanced with practical suggestions, prayers, and questions, Born to Wander will teach how to trust God even when you don’t understand what’s happening around you and follow him even when it hurts. Embrace the purpose behind the wandering and discover the freedom and safety of resting in God alone.

From the woman fighting cancer to the man who has lost his child to the girl sinking into depression, so many of us are engaged in daily battles as we long for healing. When he walked the earth, Jesus said to an unwell man, "Do you want to be made well?" His invitation stretched beyond physical healing - he sought to restore the soul. The same invitation stands for us today. For anyone struggling on the journey toward wholeness, singer-songwriter Jenny Simmons offers a resting place and a friend along the way.

In You're Going to Be Okay, best-selling author Holley Gerth offers listeners the warmth of a caring friend as well as the wisdom of a licensed counselor and certified life coach. Through positive encouragement and practical insights, she'll show you how it really is possible to live with resilience, strength, and even joy, no matter what life brings. Yes, there will be hurt and hard times, but God wants to help you find ways to survive, grow stronger, and even thrive - no matter what happens.

As women, we are exhausted. Our hearts are being wrung out to dry - squeezed and yanked in every direction. We take care of everyone but ourselves. We've gotten lost in bedtime routines and our Costco lists. We have lost our voices in the storm of everyday life. We need to be reminded to reach inward and heed the quiet voice whispering, Stay. This book is for anyone who longs for a connection with God and his people but can't seem to escape the haunting feelings of guilt, shame, loneliness, and fear.

Discover the bottomless, refreshing Well of God’s Word―and experience a fullness and peace beyond your circumstances. In the chaos of our everyday, it can be difficult to live out and apply the truths of Scripture. We want more of Jesus, but we find ourselves looking to our own lives and accomplishments for our worth and identity. And while that may buoy us for a time, we’re often left feeling dried up, discouraged, and longing for more.

You were made for more than this life has to offer. In Age of Crowns, Kori de Leon will awaken the dreamer in you as she invites you to explore glorious images of the "Age to Come". This book is an inspiring examination of how the future hope of heaven changes your today. It will teach you how to faithfully await (and prepare for) the "Age to Come", as well as how to live a more purposeful and fulfilling life with Christ here and now.

Best-selling author, counselor, and life coach helps women lay down unrealistic goals, break free from the pressure to be perfect, and start living fully rather than simply trying not to fail.

Best-selling author and Bible teacher Sheila Walsh unpacks the deepest longings of a woman's heart and encourages listeners to discover God's relentless pursuit of them through those very longings. We vowed we'd never repeat the same mistakes - yet we find ourselves right where we started. What is it that keeps drawing us back into the same old traps? The fact is our longings are built from the blueprint of our needs - for protection, for love, for God - and those needs aren't going anywhere.

During a long season of sorrow, there were days that Suzanne Eller would whisper to herself, "Joy is more than a feeling; it is a knowing." She was learning that to keep joy in her life, she needed to sort out her feelings and what she knew to be true.

Kind, encouraging, and humorous, Karen Ehman helps us learn the essential practice of using our words more effectively - alleviating heartache and regret, reducing relational tension and conflict, lessening our stress levels, and growing our relationship with God. From Bible times to modern times women have struggled with their words. What to say and how to say it. What not to say. When it is best to remain silent. And what to do when you’ve said something you wish you could now take back.

Is there a Christian spirituality that embraces the entire reality of womanhood? The answer, Shannon K. Evans suggests, is an emphatic yes. There is a spirituality that meets us in every part of our lives, developed by the women who came before us. Six mystics—Teresa of Ávila, Margery Kempe, Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena, and Thérèse of Lisieux—revealed a faith big enough to hold the female experiences of sex and desire, the yearning for bodily autonomy, the challenges of motherhood and identity, as well as life with male authority and—sometimes—violence.

If God is holy, then he can’t sin. If God can’t sin, then he can’t sin against you. If he can’t sin against you, shouldn’t that make him the most trustworthy being there is? Best-selling author Jackie Hill Perry, in her much anticipated follow-up to Gay Girl, Good God, helps us find the reason we don’t trust God - we misunderstand his holiness. In Holier Than Thou, Jackie walks us through Scripture, shaking the dust off of “holy” as we’ve come to know it and revealing it for what it really is: good news.

How can you keep your energy, happiness, creativity, and relationships fresh and thriving in the midst of never-ending family demands, career pressures, and the stress of everyday life? In Sacred Rest, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a board-certified internal medicine doctor, reveals why rest can no longer remain optional.

Life is an incredible journey with ups and downs. We soar, struggle, scale, and stumble, and often stand at the edge of cliffs, afraid to step into the unknown, unsure of where we will land. But instead of running away, we are called by God to stand firm, muster up what faith we can, and take a step. Because we were made to move mountains. In this inspiring book, Kristen Welch calls you to step out in faith and climb the mountain in front of you - not because you are good enough or adequate or able, but because God makes a way where there is no way.

With her fresh approach to the familiar Bible story and its creative, practical strategies, Joanna Weaver shows how all of us, Marys and Marthas alike, can draw closer to our Lord, deepening our devotion, strengthening our service, and doing both with less stress and greater joy.

It’s true: heartache, grief, suffering, and obstacles—they all come in waves. There is no controlling life’s storms; there is only learning the way to walk through the waves. In WayMaker, bestselling author Ann Voskamp hands us a map that makes meaning of life and shows the way through to the places we’ve only dreamed of reaching. In the face of suffering through seemingly unbearable situations, we can rest in the fact that we are not alone. In her signature captivating poetic style, Ann reveals how God is present in the totality of our lives.

On this earth, a crown is what separates victors from the rest of the competitors, but the goal of creating a life worth living is not to gain a trophy, get a prize, or keep the crown. Our lives are not meant to be about being number one or making our own names known. While walking you through the journey of her evolving confidence—from basing her identity on temporary labels and her own efforts, to discovering the rock-solid security of anchoring her dreams in her Maker—former Miss Universe and Miss South Africa Demi Tebow weaves her story with the insights she's learned along the way.