A young girl who's beloved brother is killed in an accident, searches for his heart which was donated for a heart transplant.

In January 1862, Charles Godwin courted Harriet Russell, ultimately unsuccessfully, with the following lines: "Like cadences of inexpressibly sweet music, your kind words came to me: causing every nerve to vibrate as though electrified by some far off strain of heavenly harmony." Almost ten years later, Albert Janin, upon receiving a letter from his beloved Violet Blair, responded with, "I kissed your letter over and over again, regardless of the small-pox epidemic at New York, and gave myself up to a carnival of bliss before breaking the envelope." And in October 1883, Dorothea Lummis wrote candidly to her husband Charles, "I like you to want me, dear, and if I were only with you, I would embrace more than the back of your neck, be sure." In Karen Lystra's richly provocative book, Searching the Heart, we hear the voices of Charles, Albert, Dorothea, and nearly one hundred other nineteenth-century Americans emerge from their surprisingly open, intimate, and emotional love letters. While historians of nineteenth-century America have explored a host of private topics, including courtship, marriage, birth control, sexuality, and sex roles, they have consistently neglected the study of romantic love. Lystra fills this gap by describing in vivid detail what it meant to fall in love in Victorian America. Based on a vast array of love letters, the book reveals the existence of a real openness--even playfulness--between male and female lovers which challenges and expands more traditional views of middle-class private life in Victorian America. Lystra refutes the common belief that Victorian men and women held passionlessness as an ideal in their romantic relationships. Enabling us to enter the hidden world of Victorian lovers, the letters they left behind offer genuine proof of the intensity of their most private interactions, feelings, behaviors, and judgments. Lystra discusses how Victorians anthropomorphized love letters, treating them as actual visits from their lovers, insisting on reading them in seclusion, sometimes kissing them (as Albert does with Violet's), and even taking them to bed. She also explores how courtship rituals--which included the setting and passing of tests of love--succeeded in building unique, emotional bonds between lovers, and how middle-class views of romantic love, which encouraged sharing knowledge and intimacy, gave women more power in the home. Through the medium of love letters, Searching the Heart allows us to enter, unnoticed, the Victorian bedroom and parlor. We will leave with a different view of middle-class Victorian America.

In Search of the Heart is a book that is clearly the fruit of a life in obedience to God and with deep care for people. David understands the complexity of human emotions and also the powerful influence of God's spirit in our everyday lives.--Henri Nouwen.

The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

A daily devotional uniquely designed to walk with you through 365 readings that address the most important issues of life and challenge you to live out their commitment to the Lord in dramatic, powerful ways every day. Within these pages, beloved Bible teacher Kay Arthur guides readers in a daily examination of their hearts before God. Through insightful, thought-provoking, and refreshing questions, Search My Heart, O God tackles such vital topics as marriage and family relationships, sexual purity, integrity, faith in the midst of hardship, trust in God's omnipotence, true surrender and obedience, daily priorities, contentment, perseverance, and more--urging readers to delve into God's Word for answers to the dilemmas of the day, and to let Scripture shine into the corners of their hearts. Written with the words of a loving friend and partner in the journey, Search My Heart, O God brings readers back time and again to the plumbline of God's Word so they can learn--and reflect every day--the values crucial to godly living. As always, Kay Arthur brings a perfect balance of exhortation and love, giving readers practical, biblical direction to start each day in full surrender to God.

The heart of Jesus is sacred, and the lessons and examples it provides to us are paramount in our daily mission to follow in His footsteps. Max Lucado poses the question "what if, for one day and night, your heart was replaced by the heart of Christ?" That thought-provoking question leads to many personal revelations demonstrating that we can recast our hearts to be more like that of Jesus, and the blessings created by the transformation will unleash ripples to the widest edges of our lives and those around us.