Help I M A Father

This revised and expanded edition of the classic best-seller offers a wealth of tested, proven methods for building strong families.

The author has written parenting columns for over 16 years for a local newspaper in the fastest growing county in the South. She has also written for and hosted a parenting radio show. Parents and grandparents have requested a book of her columns for years. Now, rather than cutting them out and putting them on the refrigerator, you can carry it with you. Since she has written a weekly column for 16 years, more books will follow.

Help! I'm a Father is designed to be a practical help to all expectant fathers and existing fathers with children at any age of their development. Readers will learn dozens of tips and enjoy anecdotes on how to handle different situations that occur during their children's lives. Plus there's advice on how to be really involved with and guide your children as they grow up irrespective of what age they are. It suggests ideas and strategies on how to cope with day to day situations or major events that occur in the family and offers tips and advice that really works. Whether it's a sure fire technique to getting an extra hours sleep in the early years, or talking about sex with your teenage daughter, Help I'm a Father has it covered. It's broken down into 8 chapters so fathers can dive in to the right point in their child's development, see what's coming next and look back at what they could have done. Some of the advice and strategies have managed to get me out of some degenerating and highly emotionally charged situations. They have prevented anger, frustration and despair taking over on both sides. Whether it is the ominous threat of drugs or furtive drinking or just how to do better at school, the tips in this book have helped avoid the pain that these situations can bring. In fact, they have actually ended up strengthening the bonds between me and my children and making the role of Fatherhood even more fun for us both.

Foster families are unsung heroes, willing to stand on the front lines for children who can’t stand up for themselves. But fostering can also be a lonely journey as friends and family members pull away from the fear of the unknown. We all have a job to do, and it starts by stepping forward and wrapping around those who are sacrificing so much. In Help! I’m a Foster Parent: Experiences From Real People. Hope From a Real God., Nikki Hertzler has compiled the stories of foster families and others who are in the trenches—loving, advocating, and fighting for children who have found themselves displaced from their biological families. Their poignant, transparent stories will help you get a glimpse into the true realities of fostering, discuss ways to support these families, and encourage others on their own foster journey through a daily prayer, Scripture, and reflection. Endorsements These stories from foster and adoptive moms will be an encouragement to other foster and adoptive moms. This is hard, hard work. These stories remind us of our humanity, God’s greatness, that we are not alone, and how desperately we all need Him. Trisha Porter Backyard Orphans Anyone who steps into the fostering system sooner or later realizes how broken and dark it is. For fostering families, the road is often frustrating and lonely. For the children in foster care, the emotions are so much more than that. That is why we need a book like this. Discouragement is always close by, and the emotions and feelings run deep. But families are not alone. We all need to be encouraged to persevere in the messiness, to love the children who didn’t ask for this, to encourage biological parents about whom few care—to be a light in the darkness. Pastor Derek Parker, Lead Pastor Starkey Road Baptist Church, Seminole, Florida As someone who has never fostered, I found the stories in Help! I’m a Foster Parent powerful. The genuine emotion of each devotion is heartfelt. Honestly, the experiences provoked in me a deeper empathy and support for the brave parents who choose to open their homes. But the book provides so much more. It honestly relates to the foster parents’ many challenges and offers understanding, camaraderie, encouragement, and hope. This book is a must-read for those desiring a deeper understanding of God’s command to care for the needy and the orphans. Lauren Crews Author of Strength of a Woman: Why You Are Proverbs 31

This all-new devotional helps moms and dads face the challenges of modern parenting with wisdom, hope and courage.

Are you looking to strengthen your relationship with God? Do you find yourself untangling the threads of what it is you really believe? Are you longing for a deeper connection to your spiritual side? Bunmi Laditan has been in your shoes. In the midst of her darkest days, Bunmi began writing down her deepest fears, hopes, dreams, and frustrations with God in the form of letters. The result of Bunmi's soul-searching journey is Dear God, a collection of funny, heartbreaking, and deeply insightful prayers that put words to the emotions we all feel as we grapple with this broken world and search for divine love. With the same gutsy and poetic honesty that has already charmed readers around the world, Bunmi now shares these moving, intimate conversations with God--prayers and poems that chart her story of reconnecting with the God she loved, lost, and found once again. Dear God catalogs what we're all thinking as we work out our personal relationships with God. These candid field notes will stir your heart and make you laugh out loud with Bunmi's self-awareness and profound insight into the spiritual journeys we're all doing our best to navigate. Join Bunmi as she travels through those all-too-familiar emotions--doubt, anger, joy, desperation, love, loneliness, and gratefulness--that humanity has always wrestled with. Wittily fresh and stunningly relatable, she exquisitely shares the painfully honest questions she's asked along the way, including: God, what is holiness? God, how can it be worth it to love life when it could slip away at any moment? God, what do I do when forgiveness feels impossible? God, I know you love me, but do you like me? This poignant collection of prayers is a timely reminder that even when we wander, God never leaves our side.

A thoughtful and "utterly mind-blowing" exploration of fatherhood and masculinity in the 21st century (New York Times). There are hundreds of books on parenting, and with good reason—becoming a parent is scary, difficult, and life-changing. But when it comes to books about parenting identity, rather than the nuts and bolts of raising children, nearly all are about what it's like to be a mother. Drawing on research in sociology, economics, philosophy, gender studies, and the author's own experiences, Father Figure sets out to fill that gap. It's an exploration of the psychology of fatherhood from an archetypal perspective as well as a cultural history that challenges familiar assumptions about the origins of so-called traditional parenting roles. What paradoxes and contradictions are inherent in our common understanding of dads? Might it be time to rethink some aspects of fatherhood? Gender norms are changing, and old economic models are facing disruption. As a result, parenthood and family life are undergoing an existential transformation. And yet, the narratives and images of dads available to us are wholly inadequate for this transition. Victorian and Industrial Age tropes about fathers not only dominate the media, but also contour most people's lived experience. Father Figure offers a badly needed update to our collective understanding of fatherhood—and masculinity in general. It teaches dads how to embrace the joys of fathering while guiding them toward an image of manliness for the modern world.

Trade your fear and anxiety about your children for peace, calm, and confidence in the God who loves and guides you as you parent. Bestselling author and mom blogger Bunmi Laditan vulnerably shares the prayers she's prayed for her children as inspiration for your own prayer life. Refreshingly relatable, bravely honest, and deeply heartwarming, Help Me, God, I'm a Parent meets you right where you're at and gives voice to the thoughts everyone--even you--has about parenthood that they are afraid to say out loud. In the way only she can, Bunmi echoes the same fears, joys, delights, loneliness, regrets, and love you have in your heart through prayers that . . . Bask in the awe and wonder of parenting Savor joyous moments and big accomplishments Make you laugh when you need it most Rejoice in the love you have for your children and the love God has for you Alleviate worry and anxiety about your children and their futures Bestow peace and calm in those I'm-at-the-end-of-my-rope moments Seek wisdom when the advice of the world fails you Offer humble thanks to a good God for the blessings we see and those we don't No prayer is more powerful than the one prayed by a parent for their child. Experience today how prayer can change not only your own life but the lives of your children.