As I drove away doing ninety to nothing, tears strolled down my face. I began to wonder what just happened and why. Flashing lights passed. Red and blue was all I could see. Frantically I stared into space as I drove to free myself from all the horror I had just left behind. Somebody's son, father, and brother and even somebody's daughter and mother. Time had finally caught up with me, my husband, and my best friend. The blood on my hands and clothing tells it all. A broken heart had finally shattered into pieces. Causing my mind to react to the hurt that drenched from my heart. Perhaps my greatest fears in life at this moment is, that of rejection, or of my husband's and friend's unfaithfulness to me. These fears may perhaps have tormented me into action of a murderer. But, I really can't see that, because did I just perform the acts of a murder? All I can do now is go into a preservation to keep myself from being more vulnerable and hurt. But ultimately, the results of today may have already destructed so many friendships. In matters of seconds and minutes. Now, I've left and abandoned the friendships I thought were true. To be honest, they may have tormented me unknowingly. But now, it's known and now there is nothing to fear but fear itself. There may be no more true friendships left for us. The only thing left is the reckon balls of pain that has just destructed the hearts in many lives. These lives consist of blended families joined together by matrimony and much more. No matter how we view the destruction, our friendships will never be the same. Only the lingering thoughts of what use to be true friendships. I can only imagine if I would have left these relationships years ago. What would life be like now? But running away doesn't really cure any pain. Especially, when your life isn't just destructed by friendships. But, it has left you with a point of no return.

Deep friendships are important to the emotional and spiritual well-being of a woman. This book shows just how to make and keep close friends.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes a dramatic historical novel of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post–Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives. “An absorbing historical . . . enthralling.”—Library Journal Bestselling author Lisa Wingate brings to life startling stories from actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as newly freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold away. Louisiana, 1875: In the tumultuous era of Reconstruction, three young women set off as unwilling companions on a perilous quest: Hannie, a freed slave; Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now destitute plantation; and Juneau Jane, Lavinia’s Creole half sister. Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following roads rife with vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of stolen inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and siblings before slavery’s end, the pilgrimage west reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope. Louisiana, 1987: For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt—until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, is suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled live oaks and run-down plantation homes lie the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.

God made you for friendship. Friendship is one of the deepest pleasures of life. But in our busy, fast-paced, mobile world, we've lost this rich view of friendship and instead settled for shallow acquaintances based on little more than similar tastes or shared interests. Helping us recapture a vision of true friendship, pastor Drew Hunter explores God's design for friendship and what it really looks like in practice—giving us practical advice to cultivate the kinds of true friendships that lead to true and life-giving joy.

Discover the unexpected ways friends influence our personalities, choices, emotions, and even physical health in this fun and compelling examination of friendship, based on the latest scientific research and ever-relatable anecdotes. Why is dinner with friends often more laughter filled and less fraught than a meal with family? Although some say it’s because we choose our friends, it’s also because we expect less of them than we do of relatives. While we’re busy scrutinizing our romantic relationships and family dramas, our friends are quietly but strongly influencing everything from the articles we read to our weight fluctuations, from our sex lives to our overall happiness levels. Evolutionary psychologists have long theorized that friendship has roots in our early dependence on others for survival. These days, we still cherish friends but tend to undervalue their role in our lives. However, the skills one needs to make good friends are among the very skills that lead to success in life, and scientific research has recently exploded with insights about the meaningful and enduring ways friendships influence us. With people marrying later—and often not at all—and more families having just one child, these relationships may be gaining in importance. The evidence even suggests that at times friends have a greater hand in our development and well-being than do our romantic partners and relatives. Friends see each other through the process of growing up, shape each other’s interests and outlooks, and, painful though it may be, expose each other’s rough edges. Childhood and adolescence, in particular, are marked by the need to create distance between oneself and one’s parents while forging a unique identity within a group of peers, but friends continue to influence us, in ways big and small, straight through old age. Perpetually busy parents who turn to friends—for intellectual stimulation, emotional support, and a good dose of merriment—find a perfect outlet to relieve the pressures of raising children. In the office setting, talking to a friend for just a few minutes can temporarily boost one’s memory. While we romanticize the idea of the lone genius, friendship often spurs creativity in the arts and sciences. And in recent studies, having close friends was found to reduce a person’s risk of death from breast cancer and coronary disease, while having a spouse was not. Friendfluence surveys online-only pals, friend breakups, the power of social networks, envy, peer pressure, the dark side of amicable ties, and many other varieties of friendship. Told with warmth, scientific rigor, and a dash of humor, Friendfluence not only illuminates and interprets the science but draws on clinical psychology and philosophy to help readers evaluate and navigate their own important friendships.

"Though the story takes place in the '80s, it feels eerily timely."—Bustle Arkansas, 1984: The town of Griffin Flat is known for almost nothing other than its nuclear missile silos. MAD—Mutually Assured Destruction—is a fear every local lives with and tries to ignore. Unfortunately that’s impossible now that film moguls have picked Griffin Flat as the location for a new nuclear holocaust movie, aptly titled The Eve of Destruction. When sixteen-year-old Laura Ratliff wins a walk-on role (with a plus-one!) thanks to a radio call-in contest, she is more relieved than excited. Mingling with Hollywood stars on the set of a phony nuclear war is a perfect distraction from being the only child in her real nuclear family—which has also been annihilated. Her parents are divorced, and her mother has recently remarried. Her father, an officer in the Strategic Air Command, is absent . . . except when he phones at odd hours to hint at an impending catastrophe. But isn’t that his job? Laura’s only real friend is her new stepbrother, Terrence. She picks him as her plus-one for the film shoot, enraging her fair-weather friends. But their anger is nothing compared to what happens on set after the scripted nuclear explosion. Because nobody seems to know if a real nuclear bomb has detonated or not.

"Our dangers are of two kinds, those which affect our religion, and those which affect our government. They are, however, so closely allied that they cannot, with propriety, be separated. The foundations which support the interests of Christianity are also necessary to support a free and equal government like our own.... Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them must fall with them." -Rev. Jedidiah Morse, 1799 The author believes Rev. Morse's warning is still applicable today. The basic Biblical principles upon which American civil government were founded are rapidly disappearing in our society. Yet he doesn't simply point out the problem; he also explains how the reinstatement of specific Biblical principles into American society and government can reverse the damage. The foundations can be rebuilt. K. Alan Snyder is a department chair and professor of American history at Southeastern University in Florida. He taught previously at Patrick Henry College in northern Virginia, in the graduate school of government at Regent University, and in the history/political science department at Indiana Wesleyan University. Dr. Snyder received his Ph.D. in history at The American University in Washington, D.C., and worked for several years as a historical/political consultant in the Washington, D.C. area. He is the author of Mission: Impeachable and Defining Noah Webster. Dr. Snyder ponders principles daily on his weblog at: PonderingPrinciples.com