Faith-based publishers see demand for advice, encouragement, and celebration at every stage of family life, from dating to marriage, from cooing at the baby to struggling with a teen who gives a whole new meaning to spirited. As sweet as family life can be, the authors of many upcoming titles don’t sugarcoat the challenges.
If couples want to thrive together, they shouldn’t wait until the wedding to build the skills—and faith—that requires, say Forever Changed podcasters Nick and Chelsea Hurst. They had 2.4 million YouTube viewers tracking their love story online, from their dating days to “I do.” Now, Nick, an evangelist, and Chelsea, a social media influencer, offer advice (and warnings) to duos considering engagement in Marriage Minded: 10 Ways to Know If You’ve Found the One (Zondervan, Jan. 2023). “They get vulnerable and honest with their own journey and add specific insights on the most important questions to ask one another to make the marriage decision,” says Zondervan executive editor Carolyn McCready. “This book will be a fresh read for the dating and engaged audience of today who want to build a God-centered relationship.”
For the already wed, Convergent offers a get-real marriage guide. Marriage Be Hard: 12 Conversations to Keep You Laughing, Loving, and Learning with Your Partner (out now) telegraphs its tone from the cover photo of the authors. It shows comedian and commentator Kevin Fredericks and social media influencer Melissa Fredericks, cohosts of the Love Hour podcast, as a disheveled and dusty bride and groom. Their book hits on hot topics including jealousy, divorce, and how to be Christian and sex positive when “your hormones don’t care about your religious beliefs,” as the authors put it. “Real marriage is not automatic,” they write. “It ain’t no Tesla on the open road. Sometimes it’s a stick shift on a hill in the rain with no windshield wipers.”
The Merge for Marriage: Turning Frustration and Disunity into Closeness and Commitment, (Focus on the Family, Aug. 2023) recognizes that newlyweds need skills to communicate well and to create and maintain a secure relationship. Author Kari Trent Stageberg, cohost of the StrongFamilies podcast, relies on current research and biblical principles to show couples how to resolve miscues and conflicts and thrive together, according to the publisher.
Standing on scripture
Dannah Gresh, a speaker at Christian women’s events and the author of scores of books aimed at Christian tweens, addresses wives whose husbands have fallen into sexual sin, as hers once did. In Happily Even After: Let God Redeem Your Marriage (Moody, Feb. 2023), Gresh doesn’t minimize the “pain of betrayal” but offers her certainty that a shared belief in Jesus can carry other troubled couples through it, as was the case with her marriage. “Cozy up,” she writes. “I’m here to share my heart with you and deliver a fresh download of faith for your story.”
Praying the Scriptures for Your Marriage: Trusting God with Your Most Important Relationship (Zondervan, Apr. 2023) is Bible teacher Jodie Berndt’s latest in her Praying the Scriptures series for the publisher. Armed with prayer, readers can deal with “a health crisis, parenting issues, job loss, a move, or simply daily love and communication” by keeping “God’s promises and perspective” in mind, according to the publisher.
Not all upcoming marriage books are about avoiding or surmounting misery. Pastor and author Joshua Ryan Butler focuses on the benefits of holy matrimony in his book Beautiful Union (Multnomah, Apr. 2023). The publisher says the book celebrates “the sacred beauty and dignity of the body” in sexuality between a husband and wife, and offers a view “of marriage as faithful love, and of procreation as life-giving presence.”
Trust God and take a nap
Zondervan Books associate publisher Carly Kellerman cites a statistic suggesting that “95% of moms say they need to improve one or more areas of their life.” Remaining You While Raising Them: The Secret Art of Confident Motherhood (Zondervan, Aug. 2023) by Alli Worthington—a mother, the author of Fierce Faith, and the host the podcast The Alli Worthington Show—offers a funny, helpful, empowering guide geared toward helping moms to get a grip by trusting God and prioritizing their own emotional and spiritual wellness, according to the publisher.
Sarah Atkinson, v-p and publisher for Tyndale Books, sees more parents, particularly moms, looking to avoid burnout, anxiety, or feeling overwhelmed. Instead they are “leaning into the idea that they love their families best by concentrating on what God has called them to do according to their unique family’s needs and their own gifting and being willing to let some of the nonessentials go by,” she says, citing Rachel Norman’s book If Mama Ain’t Happy: Why Minding Healthy Boundaries Is Good for Your Whole Family (Tyndale Momentum, out now). Norman, a once-frazzled mother of five and cancer survivor, writes that recognizing her “God-Given limits” and choosing “to believe the promises of God’s word” enabled her to find a path toward a calmer, healthier family life.
Hard Is Not the Same Thing as Bad (Harvest, Sept. 2023) by Abbie Halberstadt, a writer with 10 children, puts parenting difficulties in perspective with pragmatic advice, humor, and quotes from scripture, as with one chapter consoling Christians facing a wailing newborn: “Dying to Self Never Looked So Cute.”
“Creating a space for God”
Grammy-winning Gospel star CeCe Winans shares her life story of finding and living with faith and sharing it across all ages in Believe for It: Passing on Faith to the Next Generation (Dexterity, Nov.). “Being physically and emotionally available to our children is critical to their spiritual development,” Winans writes. “We must create spaces for discussing God, His ways, and His plan in our
everyday lives.”
Randall House editorial director Danny Conn decries parenting books that “can often include a mixture of humanistic philosophy, politically correct ideas, and popular notions.” Instead, Conn says, the press offers books highlighting God’s “eternal principles” such as Learning Trust, Finding Treasure: Helping You Solve the Puzzle of Parenting (out now), by former children’s ministry director Becky Sparks, who writes, “God gave us our children to teach and to train in the way they should go.”
Looking forward with hope
While many find love, encouragement, and joy in their family lives, childhood was a time of trauma and pain for Anglican priest and author Arthur Boers. In his memoir Shattered: A Son Picks Up the Pieces of His Father’s Rage (Eerdmans, May 2023), Boers reflects on growing up with an abusive father, finding healing through faith, and discovering his vocation in ministry.
Over the length of family life, many want to age with wisdom, courage, and faith to share with loved ones. ACTA Publications publisher Greg Pierce commissioned octogenarian Frank J. Cunningham, former president and publisher of Ave Maria Press at Notre Dame, to compile 100 pithy reflections into a gift book. Engaging the Gifts of Growing Older (out now) is for “people of all faiths and spiritual persuasion,” Pierce says.
Faith can steer the family boat
When their children are beset with problems, afraid, or confused, parents need faith at the helm, Christian publishers say. Relevant new and forthcoming titles include the following:
● Behind Closed Doors: A Guide to Help Parents and Teens Navigate Through Life’s Toughest Issues (Thomas Nelson, out now) by Jessica Peck, a mother and a pediatric nurse practitioner. It features suggestions for activities, devotional readings, relevant Bible verses, prayers, and playlists meant to help parents approach tough conversations.
● Thriving Families: A Trauma-Informed Guidebook for the Foster and Adoptive Journey (Herald, Jan. 2023) addresses the unique stresses of caring for children who may be struggling with trauma, grief, and questions about their identity. Its authors, former trauma therapist Jenn Ranter Hook and clinical psychologist Joshua N. Hook, apply Jesus’s “wider more inclusive view of family,” Herald acquisitions editor Laura Leonard says.
● Trusted: Preparing Your Kids for a Lifetime of God-Honoring Money Management (Focus on the Family, Apr., 2023) by Matt Bell, editor of a website that advises Christians on investing in accord with their values, seeks to equip parents to teach their children biblical financial priorities and “everything they need to get on the right path for a lifetime of effective, joyful, God-glorifying money management,” according to the publisher.
