If you have been helped by this website and would like to make a small donation to Dove Christian Counseling Center that will be used to help others who cannot afford counseling, please click here.
Patricia Jones, M.A.
Book Description
A Bible study for every person,
every group, every interest, every need
Serendipity is what happens when two or three get together and share their lives—and the Holy Spirit does something beautiful when least expected. The Serendipity Bible makes leading a small group easier, even if you’ve never led a Bible study before. You don’t have to be a gifted teacher, because everything you need to lead a great small group is here in one flexible and easy-to-use package.
The Serendipity Bible offers 60 course outlines for every felt need: spirituality, marketplace, recovery, marriage, and a myriad of special needs. It offers studies for every demographic: couples, singles, parents, youth, men, women, and many more. You can study the Bible by topic, book, or stories, or through studies that take you through the church year.
Beginner studies use questions that are open-ended, promote sharing, and feature hard-hitting, relevant endings. Advanced Bible teachings take groups deeper with questions that help leaders start the meeting, take the group through the reading, and create an effective close to the meeting. Thousands of penetrating study questions and extensive study helps make the Serendipity Bible a flexible and exciting tool for Bible study leaders as well as for personal study.
Developed in partnership with Serendipity House, an organization with years of experience in creating innovative Bible studies, the Serendipity Bible is an outstanding resource for Bible study groups of all kinds. It’s the ideal choice for groups that want to mine the riches of God’s Word; for individuals who want a superb personal study Bible; and for leaders who may lack the experience, but not the heart, for conducting group Bible studies that make a difference.
Amazon.com
According to most relationship books, the key to a solid marriage is communication, communication, communication. Phooey, says John Gottman, Ph.D., author of the much-lauded Why Marriages Succeed or Fail. There's much more to a solid, "emotionally intelligent" marriage than sharing every feeling and thought, he points out--though most couples therapists ineffectively (and expensively) harp on these concepts.
Gottman, the director of the Gottman Institute, has found through studying hundreds of couples in his "love lab" that it only takes five minutes for him to predict--with 91 percent accuracy--which couples will eventually divorce. He shares the four not-so-obvious signs of a troubled relationship that he looks for, using sometimes amusing passages from his sessions with married couples. (One standout is Rory, the pediatrician who didn't know the name of the family dog because he spent so much time at work.)
Gottman debunks many myths about divorce (primary among them that affairs are at the root of most splits). He also reveals surprising facts about couples who stay together. They do engage in screaming matches. And they certainly don't resolve every problem. "Take Allan and Betty," he writes. "When Allan gets annoyed at Betty, he turns on ESPN. When Betty is upset with him, she heads for the mall. Then they regroup and go on as if nothing's happened. Never in forty-five years of marriage have they sat down to have a 'dialogue' about their relationship." While this may sound like a couple in trouble, Gottman found that they pass the love-lab tests and say honestly that "they are both very satisfied with their relationship and they love each other deeply."
Through a series of in-depth quizzes, checklists, and exercises, similar to the ones he uses in his workshops, Gottman provides the framework for coping with differences and strengthening your marriage. His profiles of troubled couples rescued from the brink of divorce (including that of Rory, the out-of-touch doctor) and those of still-happy couples who reinvigorate their relationships are equally enlightening. --Erica Jorgensen --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity is the most popular of C.S. Lewis's works of non-fiction, with several million copies sold world-wide.
The book brings together Lewis's legendary broadcast talks of the war tears, talks in which he set out simply to 'explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times'.
'He has a quite unique power for making theology an attractive, exciting and fascinating quest.' Times Literary Supplement
It is a collection of scintillating brilliance which remains strikingly fresh for the modern reader, and which confirms C.S. Lewis's reputation as one of the leading Christian writers and thinkers of our age.
Book Description
How can couples experience a lifetime of passion and fulfillment in marriage? By identifying each other¹s most important emotional needs and developing habits to meet them. This is the basis for two books from best-selling author Willard Harley. Now it¹s easy for couples to learn together from these books‹for the first time they can listen to five unabridged CDs of the widely popular His Needs, Her Needs, or to four unabridged audiotapes of Fall in Love, Stay in Love (read by the author). With these tools, spouses will learn about the Love Bank, how to cultivate passion, and how to resolve marital conflict. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Book Description
Internationally renowned leadership authority and bestselling author Stephen R. Covey presents a personal hands-on companion to the landmark The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which has become a touchstone for individuals, families, and businesses around the world. The overwhelming success of Stephen R. Covey's principle-centered philosophy is a testament to the millions who have benefited from his lessons, and now, with The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Personal Workbook, they can further explore and understand this tried-and-true approach. With the same clarity and assurance Covey's fans have come to appreciate, this individualized workbook teaches readers to fully internalize the 7 Habits through private and thought-provoking exercises, whether they are already familiar with the principles or not. This reference offers solutions to both personal and professional problems by promoting and teaching fairness, integrity, honesty, and dignity. An engaging new companion to a bestselling classic, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Personal Workbook will help readers set goals, improve relationships, and create a path to life effectiveness.
If you are having any conflict in your relationship (and if you are breathing, you do) then this book can help you through some of the struggles. The beauty of it is that it helps you understand the other sex's perspective, wants, needs, and emotions...something that I wouldn't have been able to do in a thousand years without the help of John Gray. It is also amazing in that it helps you know and understand that, just because your spouse or significant other acts in a certain way that is undesirable or seemingly unloving, it is not because they don't love you, it is because that is simply the way they have been programmed to think and act since the beginning of time. John Gray also gives concrete steps and actions to take to help us work around some of the natural instincts that may be creating friction in our relationships. This book is truly worth its weight in gold....I have already sent 4 copies to the most important people in my life.
Book Description
The need for love begins with your need to love yourself.
Consciously or unconsciously, everyone is trying to enrich and improve their relationships in some way. Enriching our relationships is an art and a science. For this enrichment to happen'even before we can find and accept love'we have to love ourselves.
Through his experience in working with others to heal their pain, Dr. Gray has found patterns and messages that many of us received while growing up. These messages can keep us from loving ourselves'and from loving and receiving love from others. By exploring how these messages became ingrained in us while we were young and how we are using them today, we can change old patterns and thoughts about ourselves and others as well as create long-lasting, fulfilling relationships.
John Gray tells us that “Loving yourself in the presence of others means being able to express your inner gifts and talents without fear. When you don't love yourself and mask your real self, the cycle works in the opposite direction'decreasing love and true self expression.
Book Description:
Book Description
The One Minute Father is the seminal One Minute book. A man who sees that he has been a better provider than parent learns by trial and error how to be more nurturing. He first learns a more effective way to discipline -- applying One Minute Reprimands. Then his children help him discover two even more important parenting methods -- One Minute Praisings and One Minute Goals. Using these practical methods, a father develops more confidence in himself as a parent, as he and his children enjoy a happier family life. The One Minute Father begins where most fathers are and takes them to where they want to be.
Book Review:
I read this book more than 10 years ago when I was 21 years old and dating my first boyfriend (I was picky). My boyfriend and I read it together and found it very helpful. In fact, we realized that we weren't for each other!
This book has you picture your ideal mate and to list the top essential things that you must have in a spouse and the top things you definately don't want in a spouse. I'm so glad I followed his advice! I had very few things on my "must have" list and a reasonable amount of things on my "must not have". I also had a bunch of things on my "optional" list. I did not date again for 7 years! I just figured that such a man must not exist and told everyone I wouldn't get married. I figured that I'd rather not marry and still retain the choice than to get marry and regret it.
I finally met a wonderful man and because of the work I'd done with this book so long ago I knew he was what I was looking for. In fact, one evening after having a long prayer time with him I realized that he not only had everything on my "essential list" and nothing on my "must not have list", but he had everything on my optional list!!! ...plus some things I hadn't hoped to ask for. I can't say this will happen this way for everyone, but if I hadn't been encouraged by this book to wait I most certainly have married someone who didn't fit me nearly as well.
Now I've been married for 5 1/2 years and am in love with my husband as I was when I first met him. Because I'd learned in this book what to look for and what to becareful of I knew what I was getting into and have not had any dreadful surprises along the way. We are very happily married and celebrated the birth of our first child last fall.
I've read all kinds of books on marriage and most of them say exactly the same things in differnt words, but this one offers things other books don't. This is the one I give to all my friends who are looking for a spouse and feel uncertain. I highly recommend it!
