Personal Development on Single Parents

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God, our Creative Father, Living Lord,

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Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 4:10, Matthew 5:9, Deuteronomy 31:6, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Psalm 147:3, Philippians 4:6-7

God, our Creative Father, Living Lord, and Holy Spirit: You call us by name and make us Your own–but you don’t leave us alone. You put us in relationships, families, and churches for our encouragemen...

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Living and present Lord (Extended)

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Hebrews 12:1-2, Matthew 6:33, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Psalm 34:17, John 14:27

Prayer of Adoration Living and present Lord: You often surprise us, coming when we least expect it; or, You simply fold back the curtain to show us You’ve been there all along to give us hope and to ...

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Lord–in the words of the Psalmist, “You

Author

Richard Herman

Keywords

Scripture

James 5:13-16, John 14:1-3, Isaiah 40:29-31, Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 34:17-18, Philippians 4:19

Lord–in the words of the Psalmist,“You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations,” our safe place to run to, and the One who opens the door when we knock–no matter what. Because of Your ...

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Free to Love and Be Loved

Author

Lisa Sharon Harper

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Scripture

Hosea 1:null, Hosea 2:null, Hosea 3:null, Matthew 16:18, Mark 10:13-16, John 3:16, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:9-10, Ephesians 2:4-5, Acts 4:9-10, Acts 13:9

Here’s a testimony from Lisa Sharon Harper, author of The Very Good Gospel: Harper grew up as a child of a single mother. After her parents divorced, she and her mother moved from Philadelphia where ...

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Wanted by God

Author

Lisa Sharon Harper

Keywords

Scripture

John 10:10, Jeremiah 31:3, Luke 15:11-32, Psalm 147:3, Isaiah 43:1

Lisa Sharon Harper shares a powerful testimony in her book, The Very Good Gospel. Her story is that she grew up the child of a single mother after her parents divorced. After the divorce she and her ...

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Prayer for Families

Keywords

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who who creates families for our belonging: We ask for your continual care for the homes in which your people live. Keep them from all bitterness, arrogance, and the...

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Review: Atomic Habits by James Clear

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 1:null

My Aversion to Self-Help Books & Their Gurus but Why I Recommend This One! I am not one for “self-help” books. I know that I probably could use some more personal coaching advice, but… my habit ...

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The Importance of Practice in Developing Virtue

Author

Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung

Keywords

Virtues

Very simply, a virtue (or vice) is acquired through practice— repeated activity that increases our proficiency at the activity and repeated activity that increases our proficiency at the activity and ...

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The Gift that Inspired a Lifetime of Giving: Sermon Illustration Tuesday

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Tracy Autler’s life changed in a very unexpected way on Thanksgiving Day, 1993. Tracy was a single mother, living in an apartment in a rough neighborhood, she was doing her best to raise a three-year ...

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A Mission-field Tragedy Turned to the Glory of God

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:28, John 12:24, Genesis 50:20, Romans 8:28, Acts 1:1-11, Acts 8:4-5, Acts 13:13-52, Acts 6:9-10, Acts 16:25-34

Sometimes what seems like a failure is actually the seed of God’s work. As Mark Batterson tells the story, it started with David and Svea Flood. Sent to the Congo by a church in Sweden, they helped es...

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The Gift That Inspired a Lifetime of Giving

Author

Brad Formsma

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 58:10, Hebrews 13:16, 2 Corinthians 9:7, Proverbs 11:25, Matthew 25:35-36, Luke 6:38, Acts 20:35

Tracy Autler’s life changed in a very unexpected way on Thanksgiving Day, 1993. Tracy was a single mother, living in an apartment in a rough neighborhood, she was doing her best to raise a three-year ...

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Are you Talking to Me?

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

James 1:19, Luke 24:13-25, 1 Corinthians 14:9, Matthew 13:10-17

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place .” George Bernard Shaw Three-year-old Matthew was chewing on an apple when he asked, “Daddy, why is ...

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Prayer for Young Persons

Keywords

God our Father, you see your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world: Show them that your ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following you is better than chasing a...

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God’s Gifts to Immature People

Author

R. Paul Stevens

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 127:3, Ephesians 6:4, Colossians 3:21

Children are God’s gifts to immature people to help them grow up. They are also God’s gifts to help parents go deep with God. . . . Parenting is not for anything. It is not a contract with God in whic...

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Parenting and the Sabbath

Author

MaryAnn McKibben Dana

Keywords

Our Sabbath project grew out of a desire to reclaim some of the unhurried wonder of those early days of parenthood—to see what would happen if, on one day out of seven, we stopped working, striving, a...

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Author

Genny Monchamp

Keywords

Show your children God’s love by loving them and others as Christ loves you. Be quick to forgive, don’t hold a grudge, look for what’s best, and speak gently into areas of their lives that need growth...

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Author

Patrick Morley

Keywords

If you want to lead a balanced life, decide how many hours you want to work and stick to your guns. Put work appointments on your calendar in pencil, but put your family commitments in pen. Love is ti...

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Our Father, Lord, the world is sometimes a dragon

Author

Calvin Miller

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 6:4, 1 Peter 5:8, Deuteronomy 6:6-7, 2 Corinthians 3:18

Our Father, Lord, the world is sometimes a dragon with teeth set to devour the dreams of our children. Help our little ones go softly from our homes remembering all we taught them of your great love a...

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Balancing Home and Career Gracefully

Author

Tom Nelson

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 31:10–31, Genesis 2:15, Nehemiah 4:17–18, Colossians 3:23–24, Luke 10:38–42, Psalm 128:1–2

Contemporary society assumes that we make a choice: one member of a household will be the “homemaker” and the other the “breadwinner” (i.e., in the marketplace generating income to sustain the home). ...

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Heavenly Father, you are faithful, even

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Heavenly Father, you are faithful, even when we are not. We look to the examples of our parents, and they often fall short. We, too, fall short when we consider the legacy we pass on to our children, ...

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Author

Josh McDowell

Keywords

We do not develop habits of genuine love automatically. We learn by watching effective role models – most specifically by observing how our parents express love for each other day in and day out.

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Author

Arlie Russell Hochschild

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 6:1-4, Deuteronomy 6:1-9, 1 Timothy 5:8

The family has long been a haven in a heartless world, the one place immune to market forces and economic calculations, where the personal, the private, and the emotional hold sway. Yet. . . that is ...

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Author

Jim Gaffigan

Keywords

Why would a lazy guy become a parent of five? Then again, why would creative people who inherently don't like change and criticism become writers, actors, or comedians? There's something about...

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Author

Umberto Eco

Keywords

“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.”

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Living in Transition

Author

William Bridges

Keywords

I became interested in the subject of transition outer changes around 1970 when I was going through some difficult inner and outer changes. Although I gave up my teaching career because of those chang...

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Enduring Our Sinful Behavior

Author

Carolyn Mahaney

Keywords

In her book, Feminine Appeal , Carolyn Mahaney pontificates on the relationship between God’s providence and the guilt we often experience as parents who often fall short in our parenting: We can ...

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Just Charge It!

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

I recently attended an event sponsored by Compassion International, the International Child Sponsorship Organization. The event was called “Stepping into My Shoes”. The purpose being to show children ...

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Desperate for Attention

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 16:13, Exodus 33:14, Isaiah 49:15–16, Matthew 18:3–4, Luke 15:20–24, Psalm 139:1–3

We’re little children wandering the aisles of the internet because we’ve lost the presence of our loving parent. We are desperate for the attention of a good Father who sees us. We have no idea how to...

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The Bible and Christian Parenting Books

Author

Gary L. Thomas

Keywords

Have you ever noticed the severe discrepancy behind the very few verses in the Bible that discuss the “how-to” of parenting and the hundreds of Christian books that confidently proclaim “God’s plan fo...

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Our Biggest Regrets

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 13:8-9, 1 Kings 3:26-27, Psalm 51:10-12, Jonah 4:1-2, Luke 15:28-31, Philippians 2:3-4

I once asked a psychologist who had been in practice for over forty years what is the most common regret his clients felt. Without hesitation, he said, “Selfishness.” Why was I not the spouse or paren...

personal development on Single Parents

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