Recommendations based on "Shadows Before Dawn Finding the Light of Self-Love Through Your Darkest Times"

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • ECPA BESTSELLER • Are you sick of waiting for your “real” life to begin? This joy-filled daily devotional offers the abundant peace that comes when you place your trust in God’s plan and start living today—from the founder of the Honey Scoop.“Ashley’s timely wisdom will draw you in and leave you feeling equipped and encouraged to begin each day with joy.”—Rebekah Lyons, bestselling author of Rhythms of RenewalDo you have big dreams and can hardly wait to start the future God has planned for you? But maybe you haven’t yet arrived where you want to be. Perhaps you yearn for the spouse you’ve been praying for, the career you’ve been working toward, or the life you’ve been hoping for. Whatever your longings, waiting can be difficult. But you don’t have to wait until God answers your prayers to embrace where He has you today.The truth is, you’re not just hanging around for what comes next—you’re in a meaningful process of becoming the person God created you to be. This daily devotional from the founder of the Honey Scoop will fill you with encouragement to help you deepen your faith as you trust God with your life and its sweetness exactly where you are right now—not where you will be someday. You don’t need to waste your current season as you wait for what’s next.Discover how you can experience more joy, more purpose, and more trust in God today, and make the most of these holy, God-given days as you embrace The Joy of the In-Between.

Beth Kempton's The Way of the Fearless Writer is a mindful approach to the writing life, based on Buddhist thought…

“Without a hint of exaggeration,” says Bill Hybels, “the ability to discern divine direction has saved me from a life of sure boredom and self-destruction. God’s well-timed words have redirected my path, rescued me from temptation and re-energized me during some of my deepest moments of despair.” In The Power of a Whisper, vision is cast for what life can look like when God’s followers choose to hear from heaven as they navigate life on earth. Whispers that arbitrate key decisions, nudges that rescue from dark nights of the soul, promptings that spur on growth, urgings that come by way of another person, inspiration that opens once-glazed-over eyes to the terrible plight people face in this world—through firsthand accounts spanning fifty-seven years of life, more than thirty of which have been spent in the trenches of ministry, Hybels promotes passion in Christ-followers' hearts for being wide open to hearing from God, and for getting gutsier about doing exactly what he says to do. For more information go to: www.thewhisperwall.com.

Reading Notes To Myself is one of those rare experiences that comes only once in a great while.  The editor who discovered the book said, "When I first read Prather's manuscript it was late at night and I was tired, but by the time I finished it, I felt rested and alive.  Since then I've reread it many times and it says even more to me now."  The book serves as a beginning for the reader's exploration of his or her own life and as a treasury of thoughtful and insightful reminders.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the acclaimed author of Bird by Bird comes a personal, wise, very funny, and “life-affirming” book (People) that shows us how to find meaning and hope through shining the light of faith on the darkest part of ordinary life.  "Anne Lamott is walking proof that a person can be both reverent and irreverent in the same lifetime. Sometimes even in the same breath." —San Francisco Chronicle Lamott claims the two best prayers she knows are: "Help me, help me, help me" and "Thank you, thank you, thank you." She has a friend whose morning prayer each day is "Whatever," and whose evening prayer is "Oh, well." Anne thinks of Jesus as "Casper the friendly savior" and describes God as "one crafty mother." Despite—or because of—her irreverence, faith is a natural subject for Anne Lamott. Since Operating Instructions and Bird by Bird, her fans have been waiting for her to write the book that explained how she came to the big-hearted, grateful, generous faith that she so often alluded to in her two earlier nonfiction books. The people in Anne Lamott's real life are like beloved characters in a favorite series for her readers—her friend Pammy, her son, Sam, and the many funny and wise folks who attend her church are all familiar. And Traveling Mercies is a welcome return to those lives, as well as an introduction to new companions Lamott treats with the same candor, insight, and tenderness. Lamott's faith isn't about easy answers, which is part of what endears her to believers as well as nonbelievers. Against all odds, she came to believe in God and then, even more miraculously, in herself. As she puts it, "My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers."

When an old woman flees to a hut in a lonely forest, she seeks safety from the savage war that has devastated her village. What she discovers is the greatest of all a story.

Jane Goodall explores her life and personal spiritual odyssey, discussing the lessons she learned as she studied chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe preserve.

In this ground-breaking book, Raymond Moody, Jr., M.D. PhD, named the “father of near-death experiences” by The New York Times, explores the provocative subject of “shared death experiences,” the compelling evidence that many people share their loved ones journey from this life to the next.Dr Moody’s seminal work, Life After Life, completely changed the way in which we view death and dying. This new work continues his research into the afterlife by exploring in detail a wide-range of case studies, including his own personal experience during the passing of his mother. Glimpses of Eternity offers comfort and hope, and sheds new light on the mysterious adventure we take at the end of life.

For survivors of PTSD and repeated, relational trauma -- and the people who love them.Gretchen Schmelzer watched too many people quit during treatment for trauma recovery. They found it too difficult or too frightening or just decided that for them it was too late. But as a therapist and trauma survivor herself, Dr. Schmelzer wants us to know that it is never too late to heal from trauma, whether it is the suffering caused within an abusive relationship or PTSD resulting from combat. Sometimes what feels like a big setback is actually an unexpected difficult step forward. So she wrote Journey Through Trauma specifically for survivors--to help them understand the terrain of the healing process and stay on the path.There are three basic principles that every trauma survivor should know: Healing is possible. It requires courage. And it cannot be done alone. Traumas that happen more than once--child abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, gang violence, even war--are all relational traumas. They happened inside a relationship and therefore must be healed inside a relationship, whether that relationship is with a therapist or within a group.Journey Through Trauma gives us a map to help guide us through that healing process, see where the hard parts show up, and persevere in the process of getting well. We learn the five phases that every survivor must negotiate along the way and come to understand that since the cycle of healing is not linear, circling back around to a previous stage does not mean defeat - it actually means progress as well as facing new challenges.Authoritative and accessible, Journey Through Trauma provides support for survivors and their loved ones through one of the most challenging but necessary processes of healing that anyone can face.

Cigar boxes. Refrigerator doors. Scrapbooks and sock drawers and top shelves. These are the places we store our treasures–the keepsakes that tell the story of whom and what we’ve loved, how we’ve lived, and what matters most to us. God is a collector, too, whose treasures are tucked securely into the pages of his book: a golden bell here, an olive leaf there, a scarlet thread, a blood-stained cloth, a few grains of barley. Each of these saved artifacts reveals a facet of his heart and tells the story of a Father whose most precious possession is…us. In Treasured, Leigh McLeroy considers tangible reminders of God’s active presence and guides us in discovering evidence in our own lives of his attentive love.