The Walk Out Woman

Every woman longs to be appreciated, respected, and adored, but when her needs aren’t met within her marriage, she could be tempted to walk away. As little hurts and disappointments accumulate and her heart hardens, a woman’s loneliness and vulnerability take over, and she might find emotional fulfillment elsewhere, perhaps in even a casual encounter with another man. When the marriage enters this realm of real danger, the woman believes it will be less painful to walk away than try to work on it. With heart and wisdom, Dr. Steve Stephens and Alice Gray offer practical advice for how to stop this epidemic of walk-out women. They outline the warning signs of severe marital discontent and share how to reconnect with your spouse, communicate your hurt, and open your heart. If both partners are willing to work at it, any marriage can be saved. Are You Even Thinking About Walking Out? “I’m at the point where I don’t think it is worth the effort anymore.” “The only reason I’m staying is because of the children.” “Surely God doesn’t want me to be this unhappy.” Every woman longs to be appreciated, valued, and cared for. When these needs go unmet, she may be tempted to leave the husband she once loved—but walking out is seldom the path to happiness. Like trusted friends, Dr. Steve Stephens and Alice Gray offer wise and gentle advice to restore hope to your marriage. You’ll discover proven methods for how you can move toward each other rather than away, build up instead of tear down, and find love rather than lose it. Story Behind the Book Although a growing number of women are walking away from their marriages, there are no books to help them realize that this is not the path to happiness. A woman’s discontentment settles like dust on furniture, and although she tries, she fails to make her husband understand. His responses seem too little and too late. Many women mistakenly believe it is easier emotionally to leave the marriage than try to restore it. We want a woman to realize that even when her heart seems closed to her husband, there is a way to open it and become one again. Loss of love does not equal loss of marriage. Loss of hope does not mean the relationship should be abandoned.

""Places in the World a Woman Could Walk" is deeply felt and bitingly precise. The author's dual professions of farmer and poet give the stories two gifts: an intimate, gritty sense of life on the land and a skill with language that amounts to alchemy."--Anne Tyler The women in Janet Kauffman's spirited stories are unafraid to look closely at their flawed lives. Burdened by the struggles of a rural existence, they are determined to embrace the simplest pleasures with a true heart. Whether slaughtering a favorite cow or leaving a violent husband, these characters make tough choices and live with the consequences. "A distinctive voice both quirky and down-to-earth, totally unsentimental and capable of rendering reality's baffling undertones."--"Library Journal"

For as long as I can remember I have found solace in the ocean, in breathing in the salty air, hearing the roar of washes crashes, watching as the sets roll in and feeling the sand between my toes. It was during one of my toughest seasons of my life, when facing a physical condition that had me feeling hopeless, that God reminded me that He is living water, He calms seas. He empowers us to walk out on the water, and He leads us beside quiet streams. A close friend challenged me amidst a physical hardship I was living with, to return to a place where I hear God's voice the clearest, and so we spent a weekend at our beach house for to recoup and reconnect to God. I was hopeless, depressed, in physical pain and living under grey skies, but that's often where God meets us. His grace is found exactly where we are. God began to speak to me about suffering. He reminded me that my faith does not exclude me from suffering but that my hope is eternal. He spoke to me of Him being living water and that nothing on earth would ever fill me like He can. I knew this deep down but I suppose life had caused me to forget. And then He laid on heart the desire to write this devotional; a letter of love about our King. He is enough for you. For me. His grace is that good, His love that deep. Nothing can separate us from the love, which is found in Jesus. He is the happiness and the peace that our souls thirst for. May this devotional be a source of hope and encouragement to you on your faith journey, as you read through the various themed chapters. Through the colloquial devotions on each dated page, may you be encouraged to draw closer to Jesus, and to welcome Him into your life, your mess and your future.

More and more women are finding themselves alone in their Christian walk because of life's circumstances—a lack of support from people in her home, work, or church; being left out of the things she used to be included in; being misunderstood and unable to explain. Cindi McMenamin, author of Drama Free, offers personal encouragement and practical, biblical steps for gaining strength in times of isolation and becoming resilient to, not resentful toward, loneliness. Cindi's audience for Women Who Walk Alone is a broad one—single women, women parenting alone, women alone as the spiritual head of their household, women facing challenging life situations, women without close friendships. And her message is timely—every woman feels alone at some point in her life, yet every woman needs someone to grow alongside her and to encourage her in her walk with the Lord. When Women Walk Alone encourages readers to see alone times as unique opportunities for personal and spiritual growth. Women will discover practical ways to... find support from other women who feel alone in their lives celebrate their own uniqueness and grow through the lonely times gain strength for the challenges of parenting alone funnel "loneliness in prayer" into "a new power in prayer alone with God" rely on the Lord and others to overcome personal trials Using examples of biblical and contemporary women who emerged from a time of loneliness stronger and more complete, Cindi also looks at the example of Jesus and the many times He was alone or sought out some "alone time" to draw strength from His Father.

Full-tilt, hardcore, down-home, and groundbreaking, the women of country music speak volumes with every song. From Maybelle Carter to Dolly Parton, k.d. lang to Taylor Swift—these artists provided pivot points, truths, and doses of courage for women writers at every stage of their lives. Whether it’s Rosanne Cash eulogizing June Carter Cash or a seventeen-year-old Taylor Swift considering the golden glimmer of another precocious superstar, Brenda Lee, it’s the humanity beneath the music that resonates. Here are deeply personal essays from award-winning writers on femme fatales, feminists, groundbreakers, and truth tellers. Acclaimed historian Holly George Warren captures the spark of the rockabilly sensation Wanda Jackson; Entertainment Weekly’s Madison Vain considers Loretta Lynn’s girl-power anthem “The Pill”; and rocker Grace Potter embraces Linda Ronstadt’s unabashed visual and musical influence. Patty Griffin acts like a balm on a post-9/11 survivor on the run; Emmylou Harris offers a gateway through paralyzing grief; and Lucinda Williams proves that greatness is where you find it. Part history, part confessional, and part celebration of country, Americana, and bluegrass and the women who make them, Woman Walk the Line is a very personal collection of essays from some of America’s most intriguing women writers. It speaks to the ways in which artists mark our lives at different ages and in various states of grace and imperfection—and ultimately how music transforms not just the person making it, but also the listener.

Offering a beguiling view of the history of walking, Wanderers guides us through the different ways of seeing—of being—articulated by ten pathfinding women writers. “A wild portrayal of the passion and spirit of female walkers and the deep sense of ‘knowing’ that they found along the path.”—Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path “I opened this book and instantly found that I was part of a conversation I didn't want to leave. A dazzling, inspirational history.”—Helen Mort, author of No Map Could Show Them This is a book about ten women over the past three hundred years who have found walking essential to their sense of themselves, as people and as writers. Wanderers traces their footsteps, from eighteenth-century parson’s daughter Elizabeth Carter—who desired nothing more than to be taken for a vagabond in the wilds of southern England—to modern walker-writers such as Nan Shepherd and Cheryl Strayed. For each, walking was integral, whether it was rambling for miles across the Highlands, like Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt, or pacing novels into being, as Virginia Woolf did around Bloomsbury. Offering a beguiling view of the history of walking, Wanderers guides us through the different ways of seeing—of being—articulated by these ten pathfinding women.

Experience the powerful prose and poetry of Joyce Rupp with the beautiful full-color art of Mary Southard.

From the author of the bestselling A Year By the Sea, comes the inspiring story about how her and Joan Erikson's friendship pushed them to remember the importance of transformation and sustained them through their unique challenges. Shortly after arriving on Cape Cod to spend a year by herself, Joan Anderson’s chance encounter with a wise and astonishing woman helped her usher in the self-discoveries that led to her ongoing renewal. First glimpsed as a slender figure on a fogged-in beach, Joan Erikson was not only a friend and confidante when she was most needed, but also a guide as Anderson stretched and grew into her unfinished self. Joan Erikson was perhaps best known for her collaboration with her husband, Erik, a pioneering psychoanalyst and noted author. After Erik’s death, she wrote several books extending their theory of the stages of life to reflect her understanding of aging as she neared ninety-five. But her wisdom was best taught through their friendship; as she sat with Anderson, weaving tapestries of their lives with brightly colored yarn while exploring the strength gathered from their accumulated experiences, Joan Erikson’s lessons took shape on their small cardboard looms as well as in her friend’s revitalized life. In writing about their extraordinary friendship, Anderson reveals a need she didn’t know she had: for a mentor to help navigate the transitions she faced as she grew beyond middle age. And when Joan Erikson had to face her husband’s death and the growing limitations of her own body, Anderson was able to give back some of the wisdom she had gleaned. To this poignant, joyful account, Joan Anderson brings the candor and sensitivity that have made her an acclaimed speaker and writer on midlife and its possibilities. A Walk on the Beach is an experience to savor and treasure, a glimpse of the exuberant spirit that can be sustained and passed on in all our friendships.