Real Friendships

Pastor Mark Driscoll and his wife, Grace, talk about sex and marriage in down-to-earth terms, hitting issues other Christian books won't. While a wonderful wedding day is important, it's the last day of marriage that really counts. Will the last day of your marriage come prematurely through divorce? Will it be filled with regrets as you sit at the funeral of your spouse? Or, by God's grace, will the last day be a time to rejoice in the life you lived together?

In this updated edition, Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott dig below the surface to the depths of human interactions, offering expert advice and practical tools for improving the most important aspect of human life: Relationships. Designed for college students, young adults, singles, and dating couples, this cutting-edge audiobook teaches the basics of healthy relationships, including friendship, dating, sexuality, and relating to God. Newly updated and expanded to include the latest research on relationship building and vital information on social networking.

At thirty-five, Mika Suzuki’s life is a mess. Her last relationship ended in flames. Her roommate-slash-best friend might be a hoarder. She’s a perpetual disappointment to her traditional Japanese parents. And, most recently, she’s been fired from her latest dead-end job. Mika is at her lowest point when she receives a phone call from Penny—the daughter she placed for adoption sixteen years ago. Penny is determined to forge a relationship with her birth mother, and in turn, Mika longs to be someone Penny is proud of. Faced with her own inadequacies, Mika embellishes a fact about her life.

Do you brace for Christmas and the energy it requires to meet the social demands? At the same time do you long for that elusive Christmas spirit that brings refreshment and satisfaction? You will find amusement and nostalgia in your favorite Christmas movies. You will enjoy singing along with your favorite characters about a white Christmas and love. But the Christmas spirit your soul craves is found in the story of a babe born in a stable. The story of the Christ child being born in squalor and what his life means for people everywhere is the story that will bring you the Christmas spirit ...

When seventeen-year-old Eliza Lin's essay about meeting the love of her life unexpectedly goes viral, her entire life changes overnight. Now she has the approval of her classmates at her new international school in Beijing, a career-launching internship opportunity at her favorite magazine...and a massive secret to keep.

Sixteen-year-old A. J. Smith, born and raised in backwoods Tennessee, loves nothing more than repairing broken cars with her father and hanging out with her brothers and their friends. Not far away, in the busy city of Nashville, Kate Kelly is always dressed in the latest fashion, wearing clothes from her mother's boutique and jetting around the world with her father. When A. J. starts going to the school Kate attends, they instantly dislike each other....

For many, friends now play the role of family, but often our friendships don't turn out quite as we envisioned or hoped. Bible teacher Kelly Needham debunks our world's constricted, small view of friendship and casts a richer, more life-giving, biblical vision for friendship. In Friend-ish, Kelly Needham takes a close look at what scripture says about friendship. She reveals the distorted view most of us have of it and recasts a glorious vision for a Christian understanding.

Why is the third person in the Godhead - the one Jesus said would be the believer's ultimate source of truth and comfort - the source of such confusion? In The God I Never Knew, Robert Morris clearly explains that the Holy Spirit's chief desire is for relationship - to offer us the encouragement and guidance of a trusted friend. This insightful and biblically-based book moves beyond theological jargon, religious tradition, and cultural misconceptions to clarify what the Holy Spirit promises to do in your life.

There’s never been a more complex and confusing time to navigate adulthood than right now, but what if it didn’t have to be confusing for you? It’s possible to live the happy and healthy life that God has for you, and this step-by-step guide helps you get there. In her debut book, Christian YouTuber, podcaster, and Bible teacher Jeanine Amapola shows you how.

Loneliness doesn't care what age you are, how many Instagram followers you have, or where you call home. It doesn't care how "put together" you appear to the outside world. We have a collective wound that only authentic sisterhood can heal. With real-life vulnerability and "I’ve been there, too" wisdom about building deep and satisfying friendships, Amy and Jess unpack the lies we've been told about friendship

On an island on the edge of an immense sea there is a city, a forest, and a boy. The city is called Asteri, a perfect city saved by the magic woven into its walls when a devastating plague swept through the world years before. The forest is called the Barrow, a vast wood of ancient trees that encircles the city and feeds the Earth with magic. And the boy is called Oscar, a shop boy for the most powerful magician in the Barrow, who spends his days in the dark cellar of his master's shop grinding herbs and dreaming of wizards.

Ware can’t wait to spend summer "off in his own world" dreaming of knights in the Middle Ages and generally being left alone. But then his parents sign him up for dreaded Rec camp, where he must endure Meaningful Social Interaction and whatever activities so-called "normal" kids do. On his first day, Ware meets Jolene, a tough, secretive girl planting a garden in the rubble of an abandoned church next to the camp. Soon, he starts skipping Rec, creating a castle-like space of his own in the church lot.

An honest and humorous take on the connection between self-acceptance and community, I'll Be There (and Let's Make Friendship Bracelets) is a how-to for practicing time-tested skills to establish quality friendships and navigate their ups and downs. From the supermom team that brought you I'll Be There (but I'll Be Wearing Sweatpants) comes a compulsively listenable and highly interactive map for girlhood and friendship with a clear message: life in our crazy and chaotic "plugged-in" world is more fulfilling surrounded by real-life friends.

Sometimes our soul mates live down the street. Melissa finds hers when she opens the door for her new neighbor, Elizabeth. Over many years, their lives become intertwined as they support each other through pregnancy and motherhood, divorce, bereavement, and starting over. This is the story of finding a life partner under a different roof.

Trent Shelton is a motivational speaker, former NFL player, and founder of the nonprofit RehabTime. Trent reaches millions of followers of all ages each week with his videos and messages about relationships, personal success, life, and faith.

As an awkward high schooler, Wednesday struggled to find her place in Grand Rapids. Until a handsome senior encouraged her to believe how talented, smart, and wonderfully different she was. Naturally, Wednesday fell for him...He was falling, too. For another boy. Yet this one-sided crush proved life altering, paving the way for a string of “boyfriends” who offered Wednesday something deeper than physical connection.

Sid wears her independence like armour. So when she strikes up a rare connection with unlucky-in-love Finn, they are both determined to prove that men and women can just be friends. Marin has the perfect home, attentive husband, two beloved children - and a secret addiction to designer clothes. She knows she has it all, so why can't she stop comparing herself to other women? Bea believes that we all have one love story - and she's had hers. Now her life centres around her son, Luke, and her support group of fierce single women. But there's something that she can't tell anyone.

For once, everything in Maya's life is falling perfectly into place. She's getting serious media cred uncovering the source of a new designer drug doing major glitterati damage. And the new man in her life is giving Maya all the cool bling and attention she craves off-camera. But the truth behind her scoop is about to cut too close to home — and put Maya and her family in the crosshairs. Soon, she'll have to decide just how far she can afford to go to save her family, her career…and herself.

JP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it’s the perfect time for one last adventure: a week-long bus tour of North America’s Impossibles, the physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier—right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach.

The ups and downs mean you’re alive. Sometimes, life knocks you down and it gets harder to pick yourself back up. Whether it’s for family, friends or themselves, these realistic characters continue on. The rollercoaster of life is harsh to them, but they persevere in their own ways. Stories by Toni Mobley, Laura Ruth Loomis, Katie Kent, Douglas Allen Gohl, Deborah Henley, and J.E. Feldman.