We live in a culture that's all about self, becoming the best "me" I can be instead of becoming like Jesus. This me-centered message affects every area of our lives--our friendships, our marriages, even our faith--and it breaks each one in different ways. The self-focused life robs our joy, shrinks our souls, and is the reason we never quite break free of insecurity. In this book, Sharon Hodde Miller invites us into a bigger, Jesus-centered vision--one that restores our freedom and inspires us to live for more. She helps readers - identify the secret source of insecurity - understand how self-focus sabotages seven areas of our lives - learn four practical steps for focusing on God and others - experience freedom from the burden of self-focus Anyone yearning for a purpose bigger than "project me" will cherish this paradigm-shifting message of true fulfillment.

We all wish we had more control. When our relationships are strained, when our bodies refuse to cooperate, when the future is uncertain, control promises security and peace. If only I were in charge, we dream. And this illusion seems more attainable than ever. Technology, science, medicine, and the internet all promise us ever-increasing mastery over our world. The problem is, control is a "devil's deal." The more we seek it, the more it betrays us. In place of predictability, it gives us anxiety. In place of certainty, it creates more complexity. And in place of unity, it divides. It's not just that we cannot control things; it's that we break them even more when we try. Thankfully the answer to our craving is not simply to "let go and let God." When our kids aren't listening, when our loved ones are self-destructing, or when our health is declining, we don't have to scramble after control, nor do we have to throw up our hands. Instead, God has given us a better tool. In this culturally insightful and eye-opening book, Sharon Hodde Miller helps us discover the real power God has given us in Christ, to exercise influence over ourselves and our lives.

God never called us to be nice. What happens when we replace courage with compromise? What happens when we replace honesty with likability? What happens when we replace conviction with clichés? What happens when we replace discipleship to Christ with a devotion to nice? We live in a culture that prizes niceness as one of its highest virtues. Niceness keeps the peace, wins friends, gains influence, and serves our reputations well, but it also takes the teeth out of our witness and the power out of our faith. When we choose to be nice instead of faithful, we bear fruits that are bland, bitter, empty, and rotten to the core. In this life-changing book, Sharon Hodde Miller explores the seemingly innocent idol that has crept into our faith and quietly corrupted it, producing the bad fruits of cowardice, inauthenticity, shallowness, and more. Then she challenges readers to cultivate a better tree, providing practical steps to reclaim our credibility as followers of Christ, and bear better, richer, more life-giving fruits.

Our me-centered culture affects every area of our lives--our friendships, our marriages, even our faith. The self-focused life robs our joy, shrinks our souls, and is the reason we never quite break free of insecurity. Now churches and small groups can together heed the call to a bigger, Jesus-centered vision of life--one that restores our freedom and inspires us to live for more. Free of Me helps participants - identify the secret source of insecurity - understand how self-focus sabotages seven areas of our lives - learn four practical steps for focusing on God and others - experience freedom from the burden of self-focus Anyone yearning for a purpose bigger than "project me" will cherish this paradigm-shifting message of true fulfillment.

With Dear Daughters, Susie Davis creates a bridge between two groups of women–dear daughters and spiritual mamas. Dear daughters are young women in search of spiritual guidance and spiritual mamas are women just a little further down the road with age-old wisdom to share. Each group has valuable insight for the other and the hope is that the reader will invite someone to come alongside them, pore over the included letters together, and pass along wisdom and advice that will make both lives more beautiful, wherever they are in their God story. This book, ideal for a gift, is a casebound hardcover with ribbon.

Disillusioned and yearning for freedom, Emily Wierenga left home at age eighteen with no intention of ever returning. Broken down by organized religion, a childhood battle with anorexia, and her parents' rigidity, she set out to find God somewhere else--anywhere else. Her travels took her across Canada, Central America, the United States, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. She had no idea that her faith was waiting for her the whole time--in the place she least expected it. Poignant and passionate, Atlas Girl is a very personal story of a universal yearning for home and the assurance that we are known, forgiven, and beloved. Readers will find in this memoir a true description of living faith as a two-way pursuit in a world fraught with distraction. Anyone who wrestles with the brokenness we find in the world will love this emotional journey into the arms of the God who heals all wounds.

"All the World's a Stage"— What Part Will You Play? You know what drama is...in your circle of friends, your workplace, your extended family, and in the unexpected circumstances of life. But has it gotten to be too much? Truth is, we've all been both actor and audience when it comes to life's dramas. But here's another truth: You don't have to let it sweep you away. Discover a biblical script for a more peaceful life as you learn how to... dial down the drama in your own life respond appropriately to situations that would otherwise escalate incorporate "scene changes" to eliminate inevitable drama view high-maintenance individuals through the eyes of Christ become an anchor in the storms that swirl around you The world may be a stage—but you can find freedom from the drama.