Showing results by narrator "Sarah Zimmerman" in All Categories

Hadley is one of those rare people who feels she's living the perfect life. She has a husband she loves, a charming daughter, and a job that is deeply fulfilling. Sometimes it almost seems like a fairy tale. Then, little by little, things start to go wrong. There's the creepy guy from down the street who keeps staring at her teenage daughter, there's the strangely needy woman who moves in next door. Just little wrinkles, but then Hadley's world is turned upside down when someone close to her is murdered.

Marriage between sinners has its inevitable messes. If you’ve been married longer than a week or two, you know how the hard realities of life in a fallen age can come crashing in. Perhaps you had a season of “once upon a time,” but soon enough you realized that this marriage, in this world, is not yet your “happily ever after.”

Ryan and Jess blended their families after losing their spouses to cancer in 2010. This has led to an unexpected and often hilarious journey. Blended with Grit and Grace invites you to walk alongside them and learn what it's like to have eight kids under one roof. With wit and wisdom, Jess offers fresh perspectives on managing different parenting styles, developing family traditions, and meeting the special needs of your family.

If talking about racism makes you anxious, afraid, or even angry, you're not alone. In Anxious to Talk About It, pastor and professor Carolyn B. Helsel draws on her success with White congregations to offer insight and tools to embrace, explore, and work through the anxious feelings that often arise in these hard conversations. Through powerful personal stories, new observations on racial identity development, and spiritual practices to help engage issues of racial justice prayerfully, you'll gain a deeper understanding of race in America and your place in it.

Pastor Abby Norman is here to tell us that we can talk to God like that. In her fresh, tell-it-like-it-is voice, she unpacks the power of lament, providing us with the tools and the grace-filled permission to heal the problems we have been ignoring for too long. She shows us how to express our laments to God and to each other when things are definitely not okay. And through this process we will discover a richer connection with God - who has wanted nothing more than our whole selves from the start.

A story of resilience and redemption set against one of America’s defining moments - the Dust Bowl.

On her acclaimed blog, Wood and Spoon, Kate Wood shares her delicious recipes and stories of her family. Her faith is the basis of everything she does, and in this spiritual devotional, she combines some of her best recipes with stories and reflections, Bible verses and prayers, along with treasured family recipes to help women get in touch with themselves and their faith, and deepen their bonds with family, friends, and community.

Abbey senses something special about the little man tending to the reindeer who, along with a century-old farmhouse, a barn full of animals, and fields abounding in woods and pasture, was a gift to Abbey from a stranger. Abbey and her husband, Steve, move in just before the holidays. They have been together since the '60s, eloping when Steve returned from Vietnam. Now with Abbey’s cancer in remission, they’re looking forward to their boys coming home for Christmas. Turns out this Christmas proves to be more magical than anticipated.

King Benjamin is about to have control of his own home for the first time in his life. By evicting his uncle, he can finally become the ruler he was meant to be. Finally live up to the legacy handed down to him, beginning with King Alfred the First, and embodied in his own father, King Alfred the Second. But revenge is a dish best served cold - or at least lukewarm - and his uncle's revenge comes just two days later when a press release announces Benjamin's engagement. To a modern-day scullery maid.

After life is shattered by loss or a traumatic experience - whether big or small - it can seem impossible to heal or even move on. Deep down, you believe God intends good for you, but you just don't have the energy or strength to figure out how to move forward. Author Laurie Pawlik has been there, and here, she shares how she flourished despite multiple losses. Through practical tips and thought-provoking questions, she helps you take small yet powerful steps toward healing and letting go. She also offers insights and encouragement from the lives of strong women in the Bible.

Author Rebecca Frech details the different types of friends, ways to grow intentionally in friendship, and how to decide which friends really deserve a place in our inner circle. Ultimately, Can We Be Friends? reminds us that authentic, life-giving friendship not only gives us a stable tribe in which to belong, it helps us to become our true self.

Katherine Clark was just an average wife and mother with two young children when she was in a tragic playground accident in late May 2009. A little boy playing on the jungle gym jumped and landed on Kate’s head, knocking her over and snapping her neck. Kate was paralyzed from the neck down. The doctors diagnosed her with quadriplegia and said she would never walk again. This terrifying prognosis could have been the end of the story. But instead, God chose to work a profound miracle in Kate’s life and in the life of her family.

For many of us women, inviting people into our lives and homes feels like inviting judgement of our entertaining skills and stress on our already maxed-out schedules. But what if you knew that opening your front door was a simple and radical way to change the world? Jen Schmidt is determined to prove it to you. She has set out to reframe how we think about hospitality and to encourage us to walk a road of welcome in our everyday lives. She aims to shatter the image of model homes and model lives, replacing it with relatable, everyday invitations.

Are you willing to do whatever it takes to have the marriage you dreamed of? Interestingly, this is the question Clayton and Ashlee ask young couples before they get married and married couples in crisis. If they answer yes, then there is hope for the couple. If they are willing to commit to the hard work ahead, they have a very good shot.

When nineteen-year-old Stella marries Theron Renier, she has no idea what kind of clan she's joined. Soon after their arrival at Illyria, the Reniers' rambling beachside home, Theron is sent on a diplomatic mission, leaving Stella alone with his family. As she tries to settle into her new life, Stella quickly discovers that the Reniers are not what they seem. Trapped in a world unlike anything she's ever known, vulnerable Stella attempts to uncover her new family's dangerous secrets—and stirs up a darkness that was meant to stay buried.

Known as a brilliant mind that could hack her world’s darkest secrets, seventeen-year-old Sofi Snow is the most wanted teenager alive. She found her way to the icy, technologically brilliant planet of Delon to find Shilo, the brother everyone but Sofi believes is dead.

Heather Holleman used to live a fragile life, a prisoner to fear, anxiety, and despair. Like many younger women, she knew Jesus, but she wasn't strong in Him. Her search for comfort seemed unending. Then, one day, while reading a simple statement in Scripture, "God guards the lives of his faithful ones" (Psalm 97:10), that all began to change. In Guarded by Christ: Knowing the God Who Rescues and Keeps Us, Heather guides women through a series of practical mental shifts that immensely helped her live strong in the Lord.

In The Wellness Revelation, certified fitness professional Alisa Keeton will challenge you to get fit with God so that he can free you to complete your purpose. She teaches that when we get fit physically as well as spiritually, we will be better equipped to love and serve others. The Wellness Revelation will change the way you perceive yourself and the way that you live your life.

The Christmas season is a particularly difficult time for women to slow down and relish what's right in front of them. An annual marker for many, it is a holiday that can often remind us how life is not going as we'd planned. Our family relationships remain strained, our finances stretched, and our schedules stuffed with too much to do in too little time.

Did you know that God loves you with a passion - and he wrote a love song to help you experience that love in a personal way? Tucked away in the pages of Scripture is one of the most fascinating and most misunderstood books of the Bible: the Song of Songs. Although the Song of Songs details a passionate earthly love story, it is intended to illuminate the best love story, the intense love God has for us, his beloved.