Conversations for Change

  Ed Welch has written an excellent short book about how to care for others while they are grieving. In the book, he covers how to respond wisely with wisdom, with compassion, and with humility. In each section, he gives real life examples of how people have cared well and cared badly. Then he walks us through how to care well by asking the reader practical, reflective questions. This is an excellent short book, which I would highly recommend. The book can be purchased  here

  It is probably true that all of us go through times when we have questions about our faith and know the importance of looking for answers. This gives us an understanding heart for teenagers when they have questions about the faith they are growing up with. Mike McGarry in Discover: Questioning Your Way to Faith provides short but robust answers to 20 questions that teenagers commonly ask. These questions cover apologetics, doctrine, hermeneutics, ethics, mental health, and the spiritual life. It is an excellent resource to use as a platform for talking about, thinking over, and discussing these issues.

  Probably all of us know people who struggle with anxiety and depression that is in some way related to their social media use. John Perritt, in   Social Media Pressure: Finding Peace Alongside Jesus is written as a response. He writes   about a number of ways in which people’s relationships, mental health, and perception of the world around them are affected by the way they use social media. Perritt gives advice about how people can gain more peace in their lives, how they can relate more thoughtfully, and how they can recognize when they are addicted. Social Media Pressure is a helpful book that gives some basic guidelines about using social media in a healthy way.

  After having raised three teenage children, Kristen Hatton wrote Parenting Ahead: Preparing Now for the Teen Years  to share some of what the Lord taught her with parents who are still to reach this stage. Often parents of younger children are looking for advice and help because they are fearful of the teen years. The book is split into three parts: Part 1: a foundation for long range, redemptive, hope-filled parenting Part 2: some pitfalls that deter parents from living out the gospel or cause them to lose sight of it And Part 3: what living redemptively in the home might look like. Parenting Ahead is a very helpful book that touches on the basics of these areas. It would be useful to read this book with parents and then explore how to apply what it suggest to their own situations

For people seeking to help women know the Lord's life-giving grace after such horrific suffering. Reprinted and republished from a previous version. Ebook available here on February 21st, print version on March 21st.

  Gaslighting is a term that we hear a lot. It comes from the play “Gaslight” in which a husband tries to convince his wife that she is insane so that he can steal from her.  It is about crazy making. ' G aslighting' where the abuser slowly corrodes the foundation of logic on which a person has learned to make decisions and take action; and doubts her own perceptions . When an abuser is gaslighting, they say and do things that lead the victim to doubt their own perceptions.    Here are some examples:   ·         Ask her to pick something up and later deny that they asked, or vice versa ·         Always want their steak well done and then say they want it rare. Or vice versa. In each scenario, the abuser accuses the victim that they should know this and being stupid for not ·       Things disappear for an unknown reason only to reappear after looking for a long period. ...

  This is very difficult to answer because everyone is different. Abusers turn their victims into being loyal toward them. If anyone is seen to question that, it is treated as being against them. You require a lot of wisdom.   Here are some suggestions:   ·         If you push what you see, your child might think you don’t understand and believe the abuser that you are against them and their love ·         Try to stay in their lives in a wise way. The abuser will probably sense that you are not easily controlled and speak badly of you to your child. This could result in their mind becoming poisoned against you and usually leads to isolation ·         If you do nothing, it will be terrible for your child ·         Pray for the Lord’s leading, wisdom, or for him to provide opportunities to speak ·     ...