Grace Like A Garden

"Gardening is the most basic of languages, the labor from which we're all born and nourished. . . ." In these pages, we travel the country with Debra Landwehr Engle as she visits 20 gardens and gardeners from California to Maine and Minnesota to Arkansas, showing us that grassroots campaigns actually can and do involve roots--and seeds and garden trowels. That any person with a steadfast resolve and an open patch of dirt can help bridge the gap between multinational refugees. That lush vegetation and running water and cool stones can help spark the fading memories of our elderly. And that our children can learn about where food comes from, labyrinths, wetlands systems, and healing from grief and loss just by digging in the earth with a caring adult hand to guide them. As the stories in this remarkable collection demonstrate, the simplest act of gardening can produce significant changes in the lives of people we might never even meet. Consider the man who sends seedlings and greenhouses halfway around the world to feed hospital patients, or the immigrant woman who began selling her own flowers as a way to raise money for overseas charities, or the couple who offers their land as a midday retreat for the residents of nearby nursing homes. These acts and others are not heroic--or even unusual--as Ms. Engle tells us. We see ourselves in these uplifting tales from the garden, as they inspire us to transform our own little parts of the world into places of greater peace, repose, play, and healing. For gardeners, community activists, and those who understand the spiritual value of putting a spade in the soil, these stories capture the promise renewed each time we plant a seed and give us fresh ideas for changing the world, one garden at a time.

What People Say About "Grace Like A Garden""In Grace Like a Garden Pastor Battle has shown with simple illustrations how to operate in the grace of God and the results it produces in our lives. As we understand the grace of God it brings freedom and liberty to help us walk out the plans and purposes that God has for our lives. As we walk out that grace we can extend it to others and bring freedom and liberty to them."Pastor Mark Brown, Abundant Waters Fellowship, Houston, Texas"Tom Battle has done a phenomenal job of tucking some tremendous truths in his book. As you read it you will find blessings and encouragement on how to grow in grace and then share that blessing with others."Pastor Oliver Stillwell, Dayspring Church, Porter Texas"Grace Like a Garden gives clear understanding of salvation for yourself and others, your need for God's presence, and His seeds that produce - multiply exponentially - and open the windows of heaven in both directions. This book provides rivers of living water through God's Word and His Holy Spirit. You will see how Jesus' light will shine through you to a lost and hurting world, as you stay yoked together with Him who is the Author and Finisher of your faith. As you press toward the prize through His growing and pruning processes, as you follow His compassion that moves you in all seasons, as you are filled with His grace, His strength will be made perfect in your weakness, and you will overcome every challenge the enemy puts in your path."Rev. Renee Branson, Mountain Top Ministries, Houston, Texas "In his book Grace Like a Garden, Tom Battle offers vivid examples and teaching that move the reader to discover and experience the operation of God's Grace. For 30 years, I've witnessed Tom's and Schar's character, love, and daily venture of caring for the needs of others. Undoubtedly, this is reflected in Tom's exceptional ability to convey God's grace in this practical guide for Christian living."Rev. Carl Alan Luepnitz, Eternal Love Ministries, Saltillo and Oaxaca, Mexico"Thoughtful and timely. As I read it, my mind was challenged, my heart was warmed, my faith was strengthened and my focus was sharpened on God's grace. Praise God for giving us Jesus Christ and this book."Pastor Jerry G. Martin, The Light of the World Christian Fellowship, Humble, TexasAbout the Author - Tom BattleTom Battle is a graduate of Georgia Tech (1969) and Lakewood Bible Institute (1988). During his business career, he held prominent positions with several oil companies. He reached executive levels of President and CEO before leaving the business world to enter full-time ministry. He was ordained in 1990 by Lakewood Church (Houston, Texas) which was his home church from 1985 to 1995. During that time, he was mentored by Dr. John Osteen and traveled extensively in the United States and abroad as an evangelist and teacher. In 1995 he and his family founded The Lord's Glory Church where he is currently the Senior Pastor. He is the author of many Christian books and songs.

A flourishing life is possible—no perfection required! Women often feel like they have to have it all together in order to live a meaningful life. Instead they feel inadequate, overwhelmed, and exhausted as they to figure out how to do it all. Author, business owner, and mom to three Lara Casey offers this grace-filled advice: “We can’t do it all, and do it well. But, we can choose to cultivate what matters. Written as part encouragement anthem and part practical guide, Cultivate offers wisdom from God’s Word alongside lessons Lara has learned in her garden. Special features include: Actionable Cultivate It prompts throughout the book A ten-week Cultivate Together discussion guide with questions for small groups “Grace from the Garden” vignettes provide encouragement and inspiration Discover how to embrace the season you’re in, and find the joy and the freedom that comes in cultivating what matters, little by little, with God’s transforming grace.

A rehearsal dinner brings together two disparate families in this sparkling, witty novel “This vital novel offers delicious echoes of Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster, and a touch of A Midsummer Night’s Dream—but its magic is unique. The Garden Party is beautiful and full of life.”—Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl and The Woman Upstairs The Cohens are wildly impractical intellectuals—academics, activists, and artists. The Barlows are Wall Street Journal–reading lawyers steeped in trusts and copyrights, golf and tennis. The two families are reserved with and wary of each other, but tonight, the evening before the wedding that is supposed to unite them in marriage, they will attempt to set aside their differences over dinner in the garden. As Celia Cohen, the eminent literary critic, sets the table, her husband, Pindar, would much rather be translating ancient recipes for his Babylonian cookbook than hosting this rehearsal dinner. Meanwhile, their son, Adam, the poet (and nervous groom), wonders if there is still time to simply elope. One of Adam’s sisters, Naomi, a passionate but fragile social activist, refuses to leave her room, while Sara, scorpion biologist turned folklore writer, sits up on the roof mourning an imminent breakup. And Pindar’s elderly mother, Leah, witnesses everything, weaving old memories into the present. The lawyers are early: patriarch Stephen Barlow and his bespangled wife, Philippa, who specializes in estates, along with Philippa’s father, Nathan, hobbled by age and Lyme disease. Then come the Barlow sons William (war crimes), Cameron (intellectual property), and Barnes (the prosecutor), each with desperate wife and precocious offspring. How could their younger siblings—Eliza, the bride, an aspiring veterinarian, and her twin brother, Harry, recently expelled from divinity school—have issued from such a family? Up and down the dinner table, with its twenty-four (or is it twenty-five?) guests, unions are forming and dissolving while Pindar is trying to figure out whether time is really shaped like baklava, and off in the surrounding forest with its ancient pond different sorts of mischief will lead to a complicated series of fiascoes and miracles before the party is over. Set over the course of a single day and night, Grace Dane Mazur’s brilliantly observed novel weaves an irresistible portrayal of miscommunication, secrets, and the power of love. “Lyrical and charming, this comedy of errors is a delightful summer read.”—People

From the million-copy Sunday Times bestseller comes a breathtaking story of family secrets and forbidden love. Idyllic Cornwall, a lost garden, a love story from long ago . . . A hundred years ago, Lamorna Cove, a tiny, picturesque bay in Cornwall, was the haunt of a colony of artists. Today, Mel Pentreath hopes it will be a place she can escape the pain of losing her mother and a broken love affair, and gradually put her life back together. Renting a cottage in the enchanting grounds of Merryn Hall, Mel embraces her new surroundings and offers to help her landlord Patrick restore the overgrown garden. Soon she is daring to believe her life can be rebuilt. Then Patrick finds some old paintings in the attic, and as he and Mel investigate the identity of the artist, they are drawn into an extraordinary tale of illicit passion and thwarted ambition from a century ago, a tale that resonates in their own lives. But how long can Mel's idyll last before reality breaks in and everything is threatened? Praise for Rachel Hore: 'Compelling, engrossing and moving; a perfect holiday indulgence' SANTA MONTEFIORE 'Fascinating, hugely readable . . . Rachel Hore's research and her mastery of the subject is deeply impressive' JUDY FINNIGAN 'Engrossing and romantic, it's a wonderful story of family secrets and the choices women make' JANE THYNNE 'Another of this year's top offerings' Daily Mail 'Pitched perfectly for a holiday read' Guardian 'A tender and thoughtful tale' Sunday Mirror 'A romantic read' Good Housekeeping 'A perfect escapist treat for your next holiday - if you can wait that long' Eastern Daily Press

Is your heart hurting? Are you struggling to 'keep it all together' under a heavy load? Is your journey leaving your heart battered and bruised? Are your life circumstances pinning you down and drowning your dreams? Ah, friend. I have been there, too. When your heart is hungry, when your spirit withers under fierce opposition, when your soul is desperate to find what it so desperately craves, nothing but more of Jesus, more of God's peaceful presence will satisfy. Come with me to the garden – its leafy boughs sing soothing songs, therapeutic to the soul. Its restful peace restores, its blossoms bless and encourage. The lessons a garden teaches are accessible to all – and God's green-leafed grace can bring health and vitality to your desolate spirit as you stroll its paths. So come with me to the garden. If you are anything like me, you will find what your soul thirsts for so frantically among its fruits and foliage. You may just find God there...

In this award-winning, coming-of-age novel, ten-year-old Gracie Lee struggles to make sense out of her life as an Arkansas farm girl in the early 1970s. Wise beyond her age yet imbued with child-like innocence, Gracie focuses on the three things that keep her awake at night: Solving the mystery of the man in the gray house; Surviving another school year at Savage Crossing Elementary; and, Saving her alcoholic Daddy from himself (and thereby saving the whole family and wider world). Gracie feels certain there is more to life beyond school and dull church sermons. She worries about the soldiers in Vietnam and wonders what it must be like to have been born Lisa Marie Presley from Tennessee instead of Gracie Lee Abbott from Arkansas. Mostly, she wishes her Daddy wasn't so mean. Gracie's unchecked imagination leads to Nancy Drew-type adventure. Adventure leads to trouble. She confides in unexpected characters and seeks solace in a mysterious gray house beyond the cotton field. When Gracie faces a difficult family situation, she must make a life-altering decision, one that will test the very essence of her character. "At best, most first novels indicate potential. It would be wrong to say that, when reading Talya Tate Boerner's The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee, I was pleasantly surprised. Actually, I was amazed. There's magic here, in a wonderfully-told story that will find a special place in any reader's heart." Jeff Guinn, New York Times bestselling author. "Boerner's prose is a wonderful medium for unspooling Gracie's story, imbued with all the snark, wonder, and colorful details that characterize childhood... The author addresses real, high-stakes issues without slathering them in melodrama or saccharine sentimentality, and her book hearkens back to an older YA tradition of stories of plucky preteen girls, spooky houses, and inevitable tragedies that help mark the turning point from childhood to adolescence. A stirring novel with a distinctive young narrator." Kirkus Reviews

When Rebecca Kauffman's sister Grace, who left the Amish behind years earlier, is killed in an accident, it is up to Rebecca and her husband Daniel to raise Grace's two teenage English daughters in their Old Order Amish community.