Showing results by narrator "Crestina Hardie" in All Categories

At some point in our lives, we all find ourselves in a boat in the middle of a lake. We might be there due to a job loss or the death of a loved one. Maybe disability, divorce, or financial insecurity has stranded us. Patrick and Ruth Schwenk found themselves feeling battered after five miscarriages and then surrounded by the waves with Patrick’s cancer diagnosis at age 43. They were alone. Drifting. And that’s when their transformation began.

Mothering is messy. Our joy and hope in raising children doesn’t change the reality that being a mom can be frustrating, stressful, and tiring. But just as God is using us to shape our children, God is using our children and motherhood to shape us. In The Better Mom, author Ruth Schwenk, herself a mother of four children, encourages us with the good news that there is more to being a mom than the extremes of striving for perfection or simply embracing the mess. We don’t need to settle for surviving our kids’ childhood. We can grow through it.

They've helped orchestrate the perfect day for countless couples. Now 12 new couples will find themselves in the wedding spotlight in the second Year of Weddings novella collection.

You're busy and tired and craving peace - and you're not alone. Whether you're a stay-at-home mom who has a list of 17 errands to do between dropping the kids off and picking them up or the working mom whose day job is just as tough as your mom job or the brand-new mama who is experiencing the pain and joy of motherhood for the very first time, Pressing Pause: 100 Quiet Moments for Moms to Meet with Jesus is for you.

Meet the people who make it all happen - the planners, the photographers, the musicians who have helped orchestrate the perfect day for countless couples - as they find their own happy endings in the second Year of Weddings novella collection.

Moms have been hoodwinked - tricked into believing lies that keep them from not only enjoying motherhood but forging friendships with other moms who might tackle the tasks of motherhood differently. Myths such as "mothering is natural, easy, and instinctive" cause moms to feel like failures if they have questions or apprehensions in raising their kids.

Meeting Nate was truly an accident - but Amelia finds that he's one of the few people she can count on. Amelia Woods is a small-town wallflower and the proud owner of Forget-Me-Nots, a quaint flower shop that once belonged to her mother. Despite her success in business, her love life has always been a bit lackluster. Until she spies on her ex-boyfriend's wedding and ends up in a horrifyingly embarrassing fender bender with handsome wedding guest Nate Gallagher.

MacKenzie "Mac" Davis left her hometown of Red Leaf, Wisconsin, to pursue a degree in journalism. But when her dad, the town's beloved Coach Davis, suffers a mild heart attack, Mac returns home to help out. She takes a job at the weekly newspaper, but instead of covering serious topics her editor wants her to write about social events - like the garden club's flower show and the historical society's afternoon tea.