Showing results by narrator "Susan Hanfield" in All Categories

Almost overnight, America's public schools have become morally toxic. They are especially poisonous for the hearts and minds of children from religious families of every faith - ordinary families who value traditional morality and plain old common sense. Parents' first duty is to their children - to their intellect, their character, their souls. The facts on the ground point to one conclusion: Get out now.

On a daily basis, author and LGBTQ advocate Amber Cantorna receives emails asking the same question: How does one reconcile their sexuality with their faith? Depression, despair, and thoughts of suicide often haunt LGBTQ Christians as they feel unable to imagine the possibility of living a happy, fulfilling life as an LGBTQ person of faith.

Living well doesn't happen automatically for followers of Christ—it happens when we have planned ahead by reviewing and recalibrating our lives on a regular basis, and when we transition from one stage of life to the next. Times of transition, especially in midlife or later life, are ideal moments for recalibrating our priorities and habits. Ken Boa and Jenny Abel give us the perspective and practical tools needed to evaluate our God-given gifts, talents, skills, wisdom, knowledge, resources, and opportunities so we can use them to the full extent God desires.

Nine-year-old Ethan Cooper has managed to keep his family together for a year in a Pennsylvania orphanage. Now he and his siblings are boarding a train headed west. He can't help but worry: Mr. and Mrs. Rush in Nebraska have agreed to adopt all four Cooper children, but what if they change their minds? In the meantime, Ethan and his siblings encounter their first dust storm, explore train cars, and watch friend after friend leave with new parents. The children dream that soon they will have a new ma and pa too.

Linnea Bradenborg expects to find culture and excitement in Alamo, North Dakota, where she's recently been hired as the new schoolteacher. Instead, she finds a sparse little town in the middle of nowhere. Better yet, her train is met by a cantankerous wheat farmer named Theodore Westgaard who doesn't bother to hide his displeasure when he discovers that L. I. Brandenborg is a woman and not the man he was expecting.

When a financial crisis in 1850s New York leaves three orphaned sisters nearly destitute, the oldest, Elise Neumann, knows she must take action. She's had experience as a seamstress, and the New York Children's Aid Society has established a special service: placing out seamstresses and trade girls. Even though Elise doesn't want to leave her sisters for a job in Illinois, she realizes this may be their last chance.

When author and Episcopal priest Erin Jean Warde quit drinking, she heard from many others in a similar situation seeking support. In Sober Spirituality, she combines personal storytelling with theological reflection to offer encouragement, wisdom, and practical insight for listeners who want to reexamine their relationship with alcohol. Warde explores the way our culture promotes alcohol consumption and shows how we can choose to change our perception of alcohol in our spiritual communities.

The teen years have been hijacked - by fashion, music, movies, and games; by the pressures of school, peers, and society; and by superficial expectations set by the world. But there is something more glorious than all these influences that has the power to change the life of a teenager: the gospel. Written by a teenager for teenagers, This Changes Everything is a deeply theological yet practical and accessible book on how the gospel radically transforms every aspect of the teen years.

God has promised us miracles. Are you willing to do what it takes to see them through? We all desire the favor of God on our lives. We eagerly pray and hope for his miracles, promises, and blessings. But carrying the promises of God often means being stretched, being inconvenienced, and being patient to nourish those promises until it is God's time for them to be born.

With his mother dead, his father gone, and his older brothers and sisters unable to help, eight-year-old Ethan Cooper knows it's his responsibility to keep him and his younger siblings together - even if that means going to an orphanage. Ethan, Alice, Simon, and Will settle into the Briarlane Christian Children's Home, where there's plenty to eat, plenty of work, and plenty of talk about a father who never leaves. Even so, Ethan fears losing the only family he has. How can he trust God to keep him safe when almost everything he's known has disappeared?

In their first-ever jointly authored book, Michael and Nancy Brown share the inspiring, practical, and humorous story of their own journey from obesity to vibrant health. If you want to break free from the stronghold of food and discover a wonderful new way of life, this book will tell you the way.

Ray Bradbury warned of a world where our literary history is taken from us. In Burn the Ashes, some of the best science-fiction authors working today continue to explore the dystopic worlds they introduced in Ignorance Is Strength.

Ella Coach has one wish: revolution. Her mother died working in a sweatshop, and Ella wants every laborer in the Blue Kingdom to receive fairer treatment. But to make that happen, she'll need some high-level support. Prince Dash Charming has one wish: evolution. The Charming Curse forced generations of Charming men to lie, cheat, and break hearts - but with the witch Envearia's death, the curse has ended. Now Dash wants to be a better person, but he doesn't know where to start.

Feeling overwhelmed? Wondering if it's possible to move from "going crazy" to "in control" when you've got too many projects on your plate and too much mess in your relationships? Kathi and Cheri want to show you five surprising reasons why you become stressed, so you can learn the doable solutions for each one.

Editing is an invisible art where the very best work goes undetected. Editors strive to create books that are enlightening, seamless, and pleasurable to read, all while giving credit to the author. In What Editors Do, Peter Ginna gathers essays from 27 leading figures in book publishing about their work. Representing both large houses and small, and encompassing trade, textbook, academic, and children's publishing, the contributors make the case for why editing remains a vital function to writers - and readers - everywhere.

How did the idea arise that masculinity is dangerous and destructive? Bestselling author Nancy Pearcey leads you on a fascinating excursion through American history to discover why the script for masculinity turned toxic—and how to fix it. Pearcey then turns to surprising findings from sociology. Religion is often cast as a cause of domestic abuse. But research shows that authentically committed Christian men test out as the most loving and engaged husbands and fathers. They have the lowest rates of divorce and domestic violence of any group in America.

When her husband dies at the Little Big Horn, LisBeth Baird returns home in search of comfort. But her beloved mother has died, and LisBeth rejects the faith that sustained her mother. Will bitterness haunt the rest of her life? What will happen when LisBeth meets her half-brother and realizes the gold locket around Soaring Eagle's neck is the one her husband wore into battle?

We all endure trials, pain, and hardship in this life. The enemy often uses those experiences to convince us that our brokenness disqualifies us from ever being used by God again—that we can no longer be a testimony because of our emotional or physical scars. The truth is, your past pain and brokenness actually serve as preparation for what God wants to do in you and through you, if you will but surrender to and trust in him. Neuropsychologist and fellow sufferer Dr. Michelle Bengtson helps you turn your past pain into present comfort and future hope.

In Launching & Building a Brand for Dummies, Amy Will covers everything from crafting a powerful brand identity and planning that all-important launch to being prepared to scale up as you begin to take off.

From the moment a woman wakes until she falls, exhausted, on her pillow, one question plagues her at every turn: Am I enough? The pressure to do more, be more has never been more intense. Online marketing. Self-help books. Movies, magazines, and gym memberships. Even church attendance and social media streams have become a means of comparing ourselves to impossible standards. Am I pretty enough? Hip enough? Spiritual enough? We fear the answer is "No."