Holly Bea's beloved bullmastiff, Buddy, is having a bad day. Left alone to guard the house, he is taunted by the neighborhood cats, who know that he can't touch them. Buddy is worried—will Holly be back soon, or is she gone for the day, or even forever? Much to Buddy's relief, Holly returns. They go to the park, but Buddy's fun is cut short by a pack of hostile squirrels and a team of Dalmatian firedogs who challenge his self-esteem. Will this day ever end? Buddy's day is a metaphor for the doubts and anxieties children face, and a soothing reminder that God will always be there for them.

Congratulations! Bravo for you!! You are terrific! You are honored in your community You are respected by the people you respect You are seldom or never the subject of negative gossip You are a much admired person, despite your faults You are held in high esteem You are dependable. Your word is as good as gold. Stretch your thinking, break loose, and move out and become the person you have always wanted to be. Your dreams are not unattainable. 'Whoever dares to try can never be a total failure,' writes Robert H. Schuller, the world's leading proponent of Possibility Thinking. 'What you are going to be, is a decision you make. Believe in yourself.'Accept this positive faith-building challenge and make the most out of your life. Discover the power of self-confidence, dignity and pride to achieve the impossible.

Dr Francis S. Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, is one of the world's leading scientists, working at the cutting edge of the study of DNA, the code of life. Yet he is also a man of unshakable faith in God. How does he reconcile the seemingly unreconcilable? In THE LANGUAGE OF GOD he explains his own journey from atheism to faith, and then takes the reader on a stunning tour of modern science to show that physics, chemistry and biology -- indeed, reason itself -- are not incompatible with belief. His book is essential reading for anyone who wonders about the deepest questions of all: why are we here? How did we get here? And what does life mean?

From the IX Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church, the first openly gay person elected to the episcopate and the world’s leading religious spokesperson for gay rights and gay marriage—a groundbreaking book that persuasively makes the case for same-sex marriage using a commonsense, reasoned, religious argument. Robinson holds the religious text of the Bible to be holy and sacred and the ensuing two millennia of church history to be relevant to the discussion. He is equally familiar with the secular and political debate about gay marriage going on in America today, and is someone for whom same-sex marriage is a personal issue; Robinson was married to a woman for fourteen years and is a father of two children and has been married to a man for the last four years of a twenty-five-year relationship. Robinson has a knack for taking complex and controversial issues and addressing them in plain direct language, without using polemics or ideology, putting forth his argument for gay marriage, and bringing together sacred and secular points of view.

Life sometimes seems to be like a mighty magnet, which compels one almost in remote control fashion. Yet if karma has the final say, why would it appear that some people are luckier than others? Our own thoughts, words, choices, habits and attitudes continue to turn and empower circumstances, events and people, which in turn touch and shape our destiny. Yet we often find ourselves trapped in confusion where life no longer seems to make any sense. I believe that within the horizon of our hearts, the voice of our spirit echoes truth. We are designed to explore and discover our inmost self, the wealth of light and life within our reach.

Caught between the beauty of his grandchildren and grief over a friend's death, Frank Schaeffer finds himself simultaneously believing and not believing in God--an atheist who prays. Schaeffer wrestles with faith and disbelief, sharing his innermost thoughts. He writes as an imperfect son, husband and grandfather whose love for his family, art and life trumps the ugly theologies of an angry God and the atheist vision of a cold, meaningless universe.

Scripture reveals a God who meets us where we are, not where we pretend to be. No More Faking Fine is your invitation to get honest with God through the life-giving language of lament. If you've ever been given empty clichés during challenging times, you know how painful it is to be misunderstood by well-meaning people. When life hurts, we often feel pressure--from others and ourselves--to keep it together, suck it up, or pray it away. But Scripture reveals a God who lovingly invites us to give honest voice to our emotions when life hits hard. For most of her life, Esther Fleece Allen believed she could bypass the painful emotions of her broken past by shutting them down altogether. She was known as an achiever and an overcomer on the fast track to success. But in silencing her pain, she robbed herself of the opportunity to be healed. Maybe you've done the same. Esther's journey into healing began when she discovered that God has given us a real-world way to deal with raw emotions and an alternative to the coping mechanisms that end up causing more pain. It's called lament--the gut-level, honest prayer that God never ignores, never silences, and never wastes. No More Faking Fine is your permission to lament, taking you on a journey down the unexpected pathway to true intimacy with God. Drawing from careful biblical study and hard-won insight, Esther reveals how to use God's own language to come closer to him as he leads us through our pain to the light on the other side, teaching you that: We are robbing ourselves of a divine mystery and a divine intimacy when we pretend to have it all together God does not expect us to be perfect; instead, he meets us where we are There is hope beyond your heartache, disappointment, and grief Like Esther, you'll soon find that when one person stops faking fine, it gives everyone else permission to do the same.