When most women think of a pastor's wife, certain images come to mind: either a woman who's so holy she doesn't seem human, or someone sentenced to a life without fun, fashion, or friends. Lisa McKay's You Can Still Wear Cute Shoes is an utterly honest, charmingly-witty, and biblically insightful guide for every minister's wife who wants to serve the church and support her husband without losing herself along the way. You will feel an instant sisterhood with Lisa, a senior pastor's wife happily serving in the trenches. She understands the challenges of a life lived before a congregation, from finding friends and coping with criticism, to saying goodbye to a church family and starting all over again. This book is a must-have resource for every woman who wants to do the "ministry wife thing" well. Through Lisa's engaging style and fresh perspective, you will be encouraged to fully embrace being married to the ministry!

Vonnie Morrow is the last surviving member of her nuclear family except for her ninety year old mother Elizabeth. Vonnie has assumed full responsibility for the care and well being of this aging and very difficult woman. As the story begins, Vonnie enters the office of a middle-aged psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Koontz. She seeks help with the anxiety attacks that are being triggered by her dealings with her mother. The reader sees Vonnies childhood through flashbacks that give us a glimpse of the home she grew up in and her reasons for psychological difficulties now. Dr. Koontz himself is also dealing with the issues of aging and elder care. His father is showing signs of Alzheimers Disease. Dr. Koontz and his brother must come up with a plan to care for him even though he resists. Dr. Koontz himself is beginning to doubt his professional and personal choices in life. He wonders if a dramatic career and lifestyle change is warranted. Dr. Ed Wallace is Dr. Koontzs friend and mentor. As Dr. Wallace faces imminent retirement, he is faced with this alone. For all his wealth and social connections, Ed Wallace is a solitary widower and one who has developed some very poor coping mechanisms to deal with loneliness. The strand that holds the story together is Elizabeth, now in nursing home care. Vonnie struggles to overcome the influences of her past in order to function in the present. Doctors Koontz and Wallace seek to help her as does her husband Frank. Each individual must come to terms with the problems of aging for themselves and for those in their families. Aging Americans make up such a significant and growing part of our population. The theme of Assisted Living is a timely one. It is one that may strike a chord of truth for those readers who find themselves in the role of caretaker for aging relatives.

The dreaded D-word does not have to be devastating. Divorce can happen in a positive way. Charmed Divorce takes you through all aspects of your journey after marriagefrom the initial separation to adventures in dating. Complete with advice on in-laws, kids, and separation, Charmed Divorce has entertaining and enlightening chapters on everything from downsizing your household to reevaluating your career. Rediscover yourself the charmed way with easy activities to complete at the end of each chapter, along with a list of 101 things to do when getting divorced. By the time you finish reading, youll be ready to have a Just Divorced! party to celebrate the new you!

For those who are called to it, pastoral ministry can be a source of deep joy. But there are also challenges. An increasing number of pastors seem to be burning out under the load. Congregations may not be aware of the many and conflicting demands placed on a pastor's time and energies, nor the pastor's need for rest and personal support. That Their Work Will Be a Joy was written to encourage mutual understanding between pastors and congregations about the stresses of ministry. The authors present five principles that will help ministry remain more of a joy than a burden. Every chapter contains practical recommendations targeted specifically for pastors, congregational leaders, and even seminarians preparing for ministry. A dozen personal responses to the book, written as letters from people in ministry, have been collected together at the end. The book is helpful as a ministry preparation text, a guide for those serving as pastors, or as a discussion starter for pastors support groups. It will help church committees smooth a pastoral transition, or calm seminary graduates anticipating their first placement. The hope is that stressed-out pastors will recover their sense of vocation, and congregations will begin to fulfill their calling as the body of Christ.

What your mother, Oprah, and Martha never told you Let's face it: we live in a complicated world. Lands' End has a swimsuit anxiety zones area on its website; a moisturizer can cost more than a weekend in Paris; they can send a man and a monkey into space, but they still can't find a cure for split ends. Clearly, we all need essential life skills and operating instructions. But why should you have to learn from hard-won experience when Stephanie Pierson is willing to give you her vast life experience and wisdom (and share some of her more humiliating life lessons)? This smart, funny, fabulous book will get you everything from a juicier chicken to a less hostile hairdresser. Read it and you will know what not to order from room service (eggs Benedict) to what never goes out of fashion (a crisp white shirt) to what is never in fashion (socks and Birkenstocks worn together). You'll know when a man isn't a keeper (he knows more Sondheim lyrics than you do), how to buy a house (location, location, location), how to assess an Oriental rug (condition, condition, condition), how to get the best price from the wedding caterer (say it's for a funeral), and how to get the dog in a custody battle (keep a dog-walking journal).

Billy Graham: American Pilgrim offers groundbreaking accounts of Billy Graham's shaping of religion, politics, and culture throughout the second half of the twentieth century. His singular career provides a many-paned window for viewing the history and character of our times.

The fascinating life story, told critically but sympathetically, of a paragon of twentieth-century white Christian womanhood—and the wife of evangelist Billy Graham. Ruth Bell Graham’s legacy is closely associated with that of her husband, whose career placed her in the public eye throughout her life. But, while it’s true that her identity was significantly shaped by her role in supporting Billy Graham’s ministry, Ruth carried a strong sense of her own agency and was widely influential in her own right, especially in the image she projected of conservative evangelical womanhood—defined by a faith that was deep, private, and nonpolitical. Beginning prior to Ruth and Billy’s meeting at Wheaton College, Anne Blue Wills chronicles the many formative experiences of Ruth’s life—especially the first decade of her childhood living in a community of American medical missionaries in China. Throughout the biography, Wills focuses not on Ruth’s role in Billy’s life, but on her own interests, ambitions, and fears—as a devoted mother of five, as the fastidious manager of a household, as a devout and well-read Christian, and as a beloved writer and poet. Dealing honestly with a life of contradictory responsibilities that Ruth Bell Graham herself called “an odd kind of cross to bear,” Wills draws from nearly a decade of original research and presents a nuanced portrait of Graham apart from the reverential awe of her admirers and the oversimplified caricatures put forth by her detractors. In telling Graham’s story, Wills indirectly tells the story of millions of women who emulated Graham as a role model—women who spurned second-wave feminism and willingly submitted to patriarchy while maintaining an undeniable sense of independence and strength of conviction.