Showing results by publisher "Canon Press" in Relationships, Parenting & Personal Development

Marriage is not a vending machine, and love is not two quarters to put into it. It's a manner of life, not an exchange of commodities. So, what does it look like when a man loves a woman? Douglas Wilson answers that question in How to Exasperate Your Wife and Other Short Essays for Men, and his responses are as wide-ranging and humorous as they are incisive and down to earth. He explains why men's distorted view of wisdom handicaps their understanding of their wives, and he exposes rigid (and wrong) approaches to marriage and relationships.

This is a small collection of thoughts on mothering young children for when you are motivated, for when you are discouraged, for the times when discipline seems fruitless, and for when you are just plain tired. The opportunities for growth abound here but you have to be willing. You have to open your heart to the tumble. As you deal with your children, deal with yourself always and first. This is what it looks like, and feels like, to walk as a mother with God.

Fit to Burst is a book of parenting "field notes" written by a mom in the thick of it all. It is chock-full of humorous examples and fresh advice covering issues familiar to moms, such as guilt cycles, temptations to be ungrateful or bitter, enjoying your kids, and learning how to honor Jesus by giving even in the mundane stuff. But this book also addresses less familiar topics, including the impact moms have on the relationships between dads and kids, the importance of knowing when to laugh at kid-sized sin, and more.

Reforming Marriage does what few books on marriage do today: it provides biblical advice. Whether it has to do with respect and love, confession of sin, sexual fidelity, or even the gnarly issues of divorce and remarriage, Douglas Wilson points to the need for obedient hearts on the part of both husbands and wives. This audiobook is part of the Canon Press series of books on the family, which has helped many people.

Imagine where the Church would be today if the men in it were respected as they ought to be by their wives. What power would God unleash through godly men who were respected in their homes? In this short audiobook, Nancy Wilson exhorts wives to stop focusing on their husbands' problems and shortcomings and to look at their own responsibilities and learn the contentment which the Bible continually exhorts us to.

Bitterness often grows out of a small offense: perhaps a passing word, an accidental shove, or a pair of dirty socks left in the middle of the living room floor. Yet when bitterness takes root in our hearts, its effects are anything but small. In this collection of short articles, Jim Wilson and others discuss what it means to live as "imitators of God." As the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians, "We have been called to leave the bitterness and anger of the world and instead embrace the love and compassion of our God".

Douglas Wilson writes to a young man on how he should pursue a woman. Feminism has catechized us in many lies about what makes the sexes attracted to each other, and evangelical pastors have often only reinforced those lies with platitudes about servant-leadership. When they find out that being a doormat doesn’t attract anyone, young men often rebound to the secular manosphere. Douglas Wilson offers his own commonsense advice, sharp-edged and thoroughly biblical, not just on how to be the kind of man who attracts the right woman, but how to be the kind of man that keeps her.

How does a woman build her house? Nancy Wilson begins with the kitchen table, remembering how each scratch and stain in the wood chronicles "hours of stories and jokes, questions and concerns (through courtships and pregnancies), prayers and discussions." She continues, each essay full of stories and encouragement - the beauty of imperfection, the comfort of Velveeta, the strengths of mothers- and daughters-in-law, the honesty that is submission, the laughter of reading aloud.

For a Christian woman, motherhood is the subtle art of building a house in grace: "The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands" (Prov. 14:1). Each day's work is significant, for it contributes toward the long-term plan. Each nail helps a house stand in a storm. But motherhood isn't a simple formula. Building a home childbirth, education, discipline requires holy joy and a love of beauty. The mother who fears God does not fear the future.

In this short audiobook on childrearing, Douglas Wilson points out that we have a Father who delights in us and makes it easy for us to love and obey him. If that is the kind of Father we have, shouldn't we earthly parents do the same? Wilson explains how parents should not just try to get their kids to obey a set of rules or to make their house so fun that following the rules is always easy. Instead, he calls for parents to instill in their kids a love for God and His standards that will serve them well all their days. 

In Psalms for Trials: Meditations on Praying the Psalms by Lindsey Tollefson, we see that the psalms are not just pious words for the religious, but they are meant to be our prayers for every trial we face, just as they have been a comfort for generations of Christians before us, including King David and the Lord Jesus. The psalms allow us to pour ourselves out in prayer to God and to receive the comfort that comes from the promises found in his word.

The key to a good marriage is honest, complete, and humble confession of sin. This short, little audiobook, coming from a pastor with 40 years of experience, offers concrete practical suggestions about how to confess sin properly and how to avoid other snares married people tend to get snagged on, usually depending on whether they're the man or the woman. 

As parents, it is easy for us to look back and see the shortcomings of our own education. Since many of us were taught in public schools, we often have a pretty good idea of what we don't want our children to learn. But what exactly should we give them instead?

Today, everybody seems to be trying desperately to pander to young people in the church, even as growing numbers flee from it. This is largely because the church today does not expect what it ought to from children or their parents, and this can be attributed, at least in part, to a flawed concept of youth ministry. This need not, and should not, be so.  

God created us to live in bonds of society and friendship, not as lone rangers. The Christian faith presents friendship and hospitality not as luxuries but necessities. God does not save us in isolation but in community with other people. There is no possibility of living to the glory of God apart from godly companions. In this audiobook, Steve Wilkins seeks to call us back to the joyous obligations of friendship and hospitality.

At a time when the institution of marriage is failing in our culture, Christians are making a renewed commitment to discover the richness of biblical marriages as the foundation of society. In this collection of wedding sermons, Peter Leithart illuminates the subject from many perspectives, forming a loose, down-to-earth "systematic theology of marriage" that connects marriage with the doctrines of creation, salvation, sacraments, church, eschatology, and more.

At last, a practical, Christian guide for grandmothers - and for younger women preparing for that stage of life! Since our culture is in love with immaturity, advice written for "older" women can tend to focus on changes: empty nests, new priorities, grown children getting married, etc. But the Bible tells us to focus on the things that don't change: In all seasons of life, God has good works prepared in advance for us to walk in. And whether you're a young woman, married, unmarried, widowed, middle-aged, or a great-grandma, you never quit exercising that faith in Christ.