"If our families are to flourish, we will need to learn and practice ways of forgiving those who have had the greatest impact upon us: our mothers and fathers."

Do you struggle with the deep pain of a broken relationship with a parent? Leslie Leyland Fields and Dr. Jill Hubbard invite you to walk with them as they explore the following questions:

What does the Bible say about forgiveness? Why must we forgive at all?How do we honor those who act dishonorably toward us, especially when those people are as influential as our parents? Can we ever break free from the "sins of our fathers"?What does forgiveness look like in the lives of real parents and children? Does forgiveness mean I have to let an estranged parent back into my life? Is it possible to forgive a parent who has passed away?

Through the authors' own compelling personal stories combined with a fresh look at the Scriptures, "Forgiving Our Fathers and Mothers "illustrates and instructs in the practice of authentic forgiveness, leading you away from hate and hurt toward healing, hope, and freedom.

"A call to very hard, but very vital, work of the soul."

--Dr. Henry Cloud, leadership expert, psychologist, and best-selling author

""Forgiving Our Fathers and Mothers" is essential reading for anyone who wants to deal with those hurts in a constructive, healing, and God-honoring manner."

--Jim Daly, president, Focus on the Family

"Leslie Leyland Fields and Jill Hubbard take us into raw, messy stories so we can be transformed by that mysterious and painful grace in the force called forgiveness."

--Scot McKnight, Northern Seminary

"Why am I not a more joyful parent? Why aren't my kids turning out as I expected? Why do I always feel as if I'm not doing enough for my children?"
Is Parenting Supposed to Be This Difficult?
As a mother of six, author Leslie Leyland Fields knows firsthand the insecurities and questions that come with rearing children. In this provocative book, she explores with refreshing honesty the myths that can lead to unrealistic expectations and distract us from God's purposes for our children and for us. These nine myths include:
- Children make you happy and bring great fulfillment.
- You will always feel love for your child.
- Your success as a parent can be measured by your child's behavior.
- There is one "right" biblical model for family life.
- Good parenting will result in happy children.
Through a close look at God's own life as a parent as well as stories from real-life families, Fields highlights the transforming biblical truths that release parents from the grip of mistaken assumptions. Fresh, provocative insights will lead you to a deeper understanding of God and yourself-an understanding that lifts the weight of guilt and fear and frees you to love your children as God intended.
"Includes "going deeper" questions for individuals, couples, or groups."

The rousing sea stories are all here: the dramas of near-death battles, the sickening tragedy of lovers and friends lost to the waters--but this is not the whole story. This anthology of writing from 16 fisher-writers represents an extraordinary holistic view of Alaskan fishing: not just the dying, but the living; not just the obsessive doing of fishing, but the passionate being as well. Many of these stories will stick with the reader.

Description: You are invited to a feast for the senses and the spirit Thirty-four adventurous writers open their kitchens, their recipe files, and their hearts to illustrate the many unexpected ways that food draws us closer to God, to community, and to creation. All bring a keen eye and palette to the larger questions of the role of food--both its presence and its absence--in the life of our bodies and spirits. Their essays take us to a Canadian wheat farm, a backyard tomato garden in Cincinnati, an organic farm in Maine; into a kosher kitchen, a line of Hurricane Katrina survivors as they wait to be fed, a church basement for a thirty-hour fast; inside the translucent layers of an onion that transport us to a meditation on heaven, to a church potluck, and to many other places and ways we can experience sacramental eating. In a time of great interest and equal confusion over the place of food in our lives, this rich collection, which includes personal recipes, will delight the senses, feed the spirit, enlarge our understanding, and deepen our ability to ""eat and drink to the glory of God."" Featuring the writings of Robert Farrar Capon, Wendell Berry, Lauren Winner, Luci Shaw, Andre Dubus, Jeanne Murray Walker, Brian Volck, and many others, INCLUDING ORIGINAL RECIPIES Endorsements: ""I'm trying to resist the temptation to pun--describing this as a rich feast of essays, or essays one will relish with delight, or essays that one should savor, and so forth--but I can't. This collection is a meal for the mind."" --Mark Galli Senior Managing Editor Christianity Today ""This is a gift to the Body of Christ--delicious prose and glistening dishes to assist the necessary recovery of our whole persons. As Saint John Chrysostom proclaims: 'The table is rich-laden; feast royally, all of you The calf is fatted; let no one go forth hungry Let all partake of the feast of faith. Let all receive the riches of goodness.' Taste and see, indeed."" --Scott Cairns author of The Compass of Affection ""From the sheen on the belly of a fresh-caught salmon to the reassuring heft of homemade bread straight from the oven, this new collection by thirty-four outstanding writers opens by celebrating the sheer joy of eating, then ushers us into the realm of holy sacrament. The Spirit of Food, edited by Leslie Leyland Fields, is not only rich in wisdom gained the hard way--through the gathering, growing, and preparing of what winds up on our multifarious tables--but shines with luminous gratitude at the abundant graciousness of God."" --Paula Huston author of Forgiveness: Following Jesus into Radical Loving ""Leslie Leyland Fields has done those of us interested in The Spirit of Food a great service by collecting thirty-four wonderful essays and recipes. Her careful choices remind us of the many ways God can be present in the human experience of eating. The essays on fasting, feasting, and the Lord's Supper join others which recall the experiences of grace or the call for justice which occur in everyday meals."" --Shannon Jung author of Food for Life: The Spirituality and Ethics of Eating ""I loved reading all these wise, honest, and funny people writing about eating--the conundrums and efforts and delights involved in our relationship to food, and God, and God-as-food. It's a beautiful and inspiring collection of essays. I've been praying and eating better since reading it."" --Debbie Blue author of Sensual Orthodoxy About the Contributor(s): Leslie Leyland Fields is the author of seven books, including Surviving the Island of Grace: A Life on the Wild Edge of America and ""Parenting is Your Highest Calling"" . . . and 8 Other Myths That Trap Us in Worry and Guilt. She teaches in Seattle Pacific University's Master of Fine Arts Program and lives in Kodiak, Alaska.

Unplanned pregnancies happen to women in every season of life: the newly married, the never-married, the empty-nester, the teenager, the overworked mother, the career woman. Yet we rarely talk about how lonely and confusing this experience can be.
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"In "Surprise Child, "Leslie Leyland Fields, who experienced two unplanned pregnancies in her forties, lyrically weaves her own story with the stories of other women who understand the isolation you face as expectations and plans are turned upside down to make room for a child.
" "Each year, more than three million women discover themselves pregnant-at a hard time, the wrong time, at a difficult place in their lives. I am one of those women...."
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Together, these women walk with you month-by-month through the physical and emotional stages of pregnancy, voicing with startling honesty their own anxieties and struggles. Here you will find the companionship and hope you need to journey toward new life.

This is the first collection of dramatic, first-person accounts of commercial fishing written by the men and women who work in the nation's most dangerous occupation. Nineteen diverse fisher-writers, from the famous to the unknown, take the reader swordfish harpooning on the Georges Banks, winter crabbing in the Bering Sea, sea-urchin diving off Maine, herring fishing in Alaska, shark-harpooning off Scotland and points between. Together, they plumb the extremes of living, working, and sometimes dying at sea, creating the most intensely personal portrait of fishing and fishermen to date.

The best writing on commercial fishing is gathered here, blending the voices of such well-known writers as Peter Mathiessen, Gavin Maxwell, Linda Greenlaw, Spike Walker, and John Cole, together with experienced and emerging writers, many of whom have spent much of their lives on the water. With its layers and rich textures, this collection will have strong, enduring appeal to loves of nonfiction.

Contributors:

Marie Beaver
John Cole
Michael Crowley
Wendy Erd
Leslie Leyland Fields
Robert Fritchey
Joel Gay
Linda Greenlaw
Seth Harkness
Nancy Lord
Peter Mathiessen
Gavin Maxwell
William McCloskey
Paul Molyneaux
Debra Nielsen
Toby Sullivan
Martha Sutro
Joe Upton
Spike Walker