The photographer, Doug Tanner, a keen early morning runner, started e-mailing his photographs of sunrises and other wonders of nature to his coauthor to encourage her through a difficult stage of grief. Heather added some quotes from spiritual writers and meditations written by herself. The pictures inspired them to share their wonder of nature and God’s creation more widely beyond the local Redlands area in Queensland, Australia, where they live.

Multicultural, Nondenominational, Nonsectarian Includes steps for exploring the book's theological foundations with students from kindergarten through Grade 4 and above. Lesson plans, classroom activities and more. Contributors: Renée Frank Holtz, Elizabeth McMahon Jeep, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, Rabbi Jeffrey L. Schein, Alice Weinstein. About God’s Paintbrush Through fantasy, involvement and the imagination, God’s Paintbrush invites children of all faiths and backgrounds to encounter God openly through moments in their own lives—and helps the adults who love them to be a part of that interactive encounter. This book provides a gift of images that nurture and encourage children in making meaning of their world.

It was only a few years ago, God shed his light on me. Anointed me with the gift of writing poetry. He opened my eyes to understand from the scripture that I read. A powerful message came down from above and descended here on me. The grace of God bestowed on me, the special gift that was given. Burns in my soul, lets the words flow on this paper it is written. O may I thank him daily for what he has given to me. May my heart yearn to do his will, to use this gift he placed in me. To see the mighty hand of God, the creator of all things. Who used a humble servant, made her a child of the king!

Children from around the world show us God in ways that we may have forgotten! "When I looked out my window at the changing seasons, I didn't really see anything at all. My eyes were focused on my work and all the tasks I had to do each day.... Then one morning...racing to get to work, I caught a glimpse of the fiery red leaves of a Japanese maple tree in late autumn. For a moment I stopped in my tracks. It was a wake-up call. 'There is a world out there,' I thought, 'and a world beyond that world. And you,' I said to myself, 'are missing both. If this is what it means to be an adult, you need to find a way to see the world more like a child.'" from the introduction What does God do? How do we let God in? If you met God, what would you say? Here are the "theological" answers of young spiritual thinkers from around the world, representing more than twenty different religious traditions. In sharing how they see God, they'll help you to see God in new ways. In a poetic language of images all their own, these children re-awaken us to the mysteries and wonders of the universe, and lead us to our own understanding of the spiritual.

Maybe you're praying and you don't even know it. In this unique and encouraging guide to prayer, Kent Ira Groff, a longtime retreat leader and inspiring writer-poet, explores how to engage in spirituality that blesses your soul--and the world. Whether you're advanced or just starting on your spiritual path, this practical prayer path breaker will lure you in with its novel combination of touching, real-life stories, pithy thoughts and inspiring prayer practices. For those turned off by shopworn religious language, it offers innovative ways to pray in four metaphorical movements that parallel both Native American traditions and Ignatian spirituality: East--Morning / Prayer as Awareness Waking up to reality--opening South--Noon / Prayer as Empowerment Embracing your dreams and possibilities--expanding West--Afternoon / Prayer as Relinquishment Letting go of attachments--emptying North--Night / Prayer as Paradox Uniting the opposites of life--integrating Prayer practices for each of the four "movements" provide for personal and group enrichment at home and work, in formal programs and informal friendships. They interweave the author's own experience to say: "This is honest to God spirituality and I'm seeing myself."

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church explores our human connections--with each other, with other nations, with the whole of our environment--and the intersections of faith with issues like poverty, climate change, the economy and healthcare.

Chart a Course to Wholeness in the Aftermath of Divorce "Divorce tends to rip away your façade and defenses, and call into question what you know or believe. That vulnerability is painful, but ultimately can bring you to a place where your spiritual life can gain strength and insight if you are open to it. In the midst of feeling lost, you can find a new path forward, which brings you to a better place." --from the Introduction Divorce is never easy and almost always includes profound experiences of pain, isolation, anger, despair, and confusion. Here is a spiritual map for regaining your bearings, helping you move through the twists and turns of divorce in a spiritually healthy way. Drawing on her work as a pastor and counselor--and her personal experience with divorce--Carolyne Call proposes a three-prong approach to help you reset your compass on a new destination--wholeness. Supported by first-person accounts from men and women from a variety of faith traditions who have found their way through divorce, she helps you identify: Where you want to go--"I want to be true to who I am" Where you don't want to go--the "cul-de-sacs" of bitterness, resentment, victimization, and guilt What you can do to get there

The rise of the Christian Right took many writers and literary critics by surprise, trained as we were to think that religions waned as societies became modern. In If God Meant to Interfere, Christopher Douglas shows that American writers struggled to understand and respond to this new social and political force. Religiously inflected literature since the 1970s must be understood in the context of this unforeseen resurgence of conservative Christianity, he argues, a resurgence that realigned the literary and cultural fields. Among the writers Douglas considers are Marilynne Robinson, Barbara Kingsolver, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, Ishmael Reed, N. Scott Momaday, Gloria Anzaldúa, Philip Roth, Carl Sagan, and Dan Brown. Their fictions engaged a wide range of topics: religious conspiracies, faith and wonder, slavery and imperialism, evolution and extraterrestrial contact, alternate histories and ancestral spiritualities. But this is only part of the story. Liberal-leaning literary writers responding to the resurgence were sometimes confused by the Christian Right’s strange entanglement with the contemporary paradigms of multiculturalism and postmodernism —leading to complex emergent phenomena that Douglas terms "Christian multiculturalism" and "Christian postmodernism." Ultimately, If God Meant to Interfere shows the value of listening to our literature for its sometimes subterranean attention to the religious and social upheavals going on around it.

Elia risks everything to find out if it’s unforgettable love—or reckless infatuation. She's heartbroken, trying to forget her crush on Misha, the daredevil dancer. But it isn’t working. With her entire future at stake, Elia needs to slow her heart and listen to her head. The last time she was with him, she fell too hard, too fast. Elia returns to Ukraine to see if the tender and talented Misha Kravetz will start over as friends. Instead, Misha overwhelms her with love, charming her, drawing her into his fascinating life. Courtship has never been like this before! She is transformed, awash with passion, eager for more. But the creamy center of anything delicious can only be enjoyed after you break through tough shells. Disapproval from Misha’s mischievous, scheming mother and village bullies are only the start. What happens when friends, family, and past loves draw battle lines of fear, envy & obsession—on all sides? Find out in Barter for My Bride, a clean, contemporary romance, the sequel to Daredevil Dancer.

"Where is God?" “What does God look like?” “How does God make things happen?” With little hands, and big hands. With young hands and old hands, With your hands.” Mixing sparks of curiosity and spiritual imagination, this wondrous book lights children's creativity and shows how God is with us every day, in every way. It is a vibrant invitation to children and their adults to explore—together—what, where, and how God is in our lives. Multicultural, Nondenominational, Nonsectarian; Endorsed by Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish Religious Leaders