Adult Children as Husbands, Wives, and Lovers


Book Description

Do you go out of your way to avoid conflict in your primary relationship? Do you feel that your partner is emotionally closed off from you? Does the fear of abandonment overwhelm you and make you cling to your partner?




Adult Children as Husbands, Wives, and Lovers


Book Description

Do you go out of your way to avoid conflict in your primary relationship? Do you feel that your partner is emotionally closed off from you? Does the fear of abandonment overwhelm you and make you cling to your partner? Emotions, control, boundaries, intimacy, conflict, commitment: these are issues in any relationship. But if you and/or your partner are Adult Children, these issues can be the source of continuous struggle, pain, and confusion. In Adult Children as Husbands, Wives, and Lovers, Steven Farmer pinpoints how difficulties with these issues originate in childhood, where healthy role models were not available. Farmer offers examples that illustrate how each of these issues is played out in the relationship, in all their variations. You’ll find specific strategies for breaking old destructive patterns, and ideas on how you and your present or future partner can create healthy intimacy. Each chapter includes exercise you can do alone, with a friend, or with your mate that will help you heal old hurts and develop a satisfying relationship. An Adult Child himself, Farmer shares personal experiences and case histories of unhealthy and healthy relationships to show that having a relationship is a process. You don’t have to “have it all together,” and there is no such thing as a “perfect relationship.” The only requirement is that a couple—or even just one person—face their problems honestly, and find the hope and courage to change.




Wives, Husbands, and Lovers


Book Description

What is the state of intimate romantic relationships and marriage in urban China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan? Since the 1980's, the character of intimate life in these urban settings has changed dramatically. While many speculate about the 21st century as Asia's century, this book turns to the more intimate territory of sexuality and marriage—and observes the unprecedented changes in the law and popular expectations for romantic bonds and the creation of new families. Wives, Husbands, and Lovers examines how sexual relationships and marriage are perceived and practiced under new developments within each urban location, including the establishment of no fault divorce laws, lower rates of childbearing within marriage, and the increased tolerance for non-marital and non-heterosexual intimate relationships. The authors also chronicle what happens when states remove themselves from direct involvement in some features of marriage but not others. Tracing how the marital "rules of the game" have changed substantially across the region, this book challenges long-standing assumptions that marriage is the universally preferred status for all men and women, that extramarital sexuality is incompatible with marriage, or that marriage necessarily unites a man and a woman. This book illustrates the wide range of potential futures for marriage, sexuality, and family across these societies.




Co-Dependence Healing the Human Condition


Book Description

Of all the books on the often misunderstood concept of co-dependence, this is probably the clearest, most complete and informative. Charles Whitfield is a frontline clinician who has been assisting co-dependents in their healing for over twenty years. He has researched the literature on co-dependence, which he summarizes in this widely read book. He sees co-dependence as a way to more accurately describe the painful and confusing part of the human condition. In careful detail he describes just what co-dependence is and what it is not, how it comes about, and how to heal its painful aftereffects.




Rising from Abuse


Book Description

Rising from Abuse empowers you to quickly mend abusive relationships through Visual Learning! The 3 “C”s and “D”s identify why abuse happens to you, and how to change relationships in a positive way. They give you immediate strength to confront all controlling behaviors. You will also learn how to choose healthy companions, and not repeat past mistakes! And, the new principles of self-healing will bring you lasting inner peace. A happier and more fulfilling life is ahead!




Sacred Ceremony


Book Description

Steven Farmer is a best selling author, teacher, shamanic practitioner, and Soul Healer. Sacred Ceremony gives you clear and simple guidelines for designing and performing ceremonies for any purpose—from healing emotional or physical wounds to honoring important life passages and celebrating seasonal cycles. Whatever your spiritual background or experience with ceremonies, this is a book you’ll want to refer to again and again! "Sacred Ceremony is the most through, thoughtful, and accesible book on ritual ceremony that exists today. It is a treaure that can help you connect to the Source of Life, renew in times of transition, find healing and guidance, celebrate the cycles of life, and maintain a vibrant cnnection to the Sacred every day. Thank you, Steven, for compiling such a meaningful and practical guide." - Joan Borysenko, PhD.




Friends and Lovers


Book Description

Marriage aims at the glory of God through intimate companionship. God meant husband and wife to walk together, talk together, work together, and sleep together. As the Puritans said, God did not make the woman out of man's head to control him, or out of his feet for him to trample on her, but out of his side to be embraced near to his heart. Here is a book of practical encouragements for two key aspects of marriage: companionship and sex. Dr. Joel Beeke draws upon the wisdom of the Holy Scriptures and over three decades of pastoral ministry to present a dozen practical principles for fanning into flame the fire of love between husband and wife. The Bible has a higher aim than a satisfying marriage, namely, glorying in God forever. Marriage will one day be done, made obsolete by the magnificent relationship between Christ and His people. Even now, marriage is neither the chief purpose nor the highest joy of man. But the Scriptures do call wedded people to glorify God here and now through their marriages. Dr. Beeke's book aims to assist them in this. In Part I ("Friends"), the book explores the meaning, cultivation, and threats to friendship in marriage. Friendship is that personal bond of shared life that brings people together in delightful harmony. It is rooted God's created order of making men and women in His image. We broke this harmonious order when our first parents sinned against God, simultaneously turning against each other. But Christ is the great peacemaker and friendship-restorer. Cultivating friendship with your spouse is hard work, but profoundly rewarding. It revolves around sharing life together. The book gives guidance in how to share yourself with your spouse through the gifts of time, discussing decisions, listening to each other's feelings, talking about how God is at work in your lives, praying together, building trust, laughing together, giving thanks, pleasing your spouse, and finding shared interests. It also walks the reader through the minefields of giving and receiving correction, honoring in-laws, having balanced friendship with others, and supporting on another in crises. Above all, we must remember that our most important friendship is with our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone can walk with us through life, death, and eternity. In Part II ("Lovers"), Dr. Beeke sets forth several ways in which the gospel energizes married Christians to enjoy sex in holy delight. The words "gospel," "sex," and "holy," may not seem to go together. This book shows that in reality sexual love between husband and wife is both a holy duty pleasing to God and blessed privilege empowered by Christ's grace. Rather than splitting our lives into different compartments such as sex and religion, God calls us to respond to Christ's mercies by offering our whole existence to Him as a living sacrifice. The Bible teaches us doctrines like the image of God in man, the creation mandate God laid upon the human race, the moral law for marriage, forgiveness of sins by faith in Christ, sanctification by divine grace, Christ's call to take up our cross, adoption by God, and turning from idols to give thanks to God. All these doctrines have massive implications for our sexual relationship with our spouses. However these doctrines must do more than sit in our minds; they must sink into our hearts. In Reformed, experiential fashion, Dr. Beeke leads the reader to know, believe, feel, and act based upon God's Word applied by God's Spirit.




When Our Grown Kids Disappoint Us


Book Description

How do today's parents cope when the dreams we had for our children clash with reality? What can we do for our twenty- and even thirty-somethings who can't seem to grow up? How can we help our depressed, dependent, or addicted adult children, the ones who can't get their lives started, who are just marking time or even doing it? What's the right strategy when our smart, capable "adultolescents" won't leave home or come boomeranging back? Who can we turn to when the kids aren't all right and we, their parents, are frightened, frustrated, resentful, embarrassed, and especially, disappointed? In this groundbreaking book, a social psychologist who's been chronicling the lives of American families for over two decades confronts our deepest concerns, including our silence and self-imposed sense of isolation, when our grown kids have failed to thrive. She listens to a generation that "did everything right" and expected its children to grow into happy, healthy, successful adults. But they haven't, at least, not yet -- and meanwhile, we're letting their problems threaten our health, marriages, security, freedom, careers or retirement, and other family relationships. With warmth, empathy, and perspective, Dr. Adams offers a positive, life-affirming message to parents who are still trying to "fix" their adult children -- Stop! She shows us how to separate from their problems without separating from them, and how to be a positive force in their lives while getting on with our own. As we navigate this critical passage in our second adulthood and their first, the bestselling author of I'm Still Your Mother reminds us that the pleasures and possibilities of postparenthood should not depend on how our kids turn out, but on how we do!




Grown and Flown


Book Description

PARENTING NEVER ENDS. From the founders of the #1 site for parents of teens and young adults comes an essential guide for building strong relationships with your teens and preparing them to successfully launch into adulthood The high school and college years: an extended roller coaster of academics, friends, first loves, first break-ups, driver’s ed, jobs, and everything in between. Kids are constantly changing and how we parent them must change, too. But how do we stay close as a family as our lives move apart? Enter the co-founders of Grown and Flown, Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington. In the midst of guiding their own kids through this transition, they launched what has become the largest website and online community for parents of fifteen to twenty-five year olds. Now they’ve compiled new takeaways and fresh insights from all that they’ve learned into this handy, must-have guide. Grown and Flown is a one-stop resource for parenting teenagers, leading up to—and through—high school and those first years of independence. It covers everything from the monumental (how to let your kids go) to the mundane (how to shop for a dorm room). Organized by topic—such as academics, anxiety and mental health, college life—it features a combination of stories, advice from professionals, and practical sidebars. Consider this your parenting lifeline: an easy-to-use manual that offers support and perspective. Grown and Flown is required reading for anyone looking to raise an adult with whom you have an enduring, profound connection.




Radical Marriage


Book Description

"Radical Marriage provides clear ideas, easy strategies to follow, and a 'radical' new paradigm for creating the relationship of your dreams." - Harville Hendrix, Ph.D. and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph.D., Co-authors of Making Marriage Simple "Radical Marriage is an accessible and clear description of the steps for relationship success with many easy-to-follow strategies for making life and love better." - Don Ferguson, Ph.D. author of Reptiles in Love and The Couples' Manual "Radical Marriage is for couples in good marriages who envision something wonderful for their future together. The Steeles have given us a manifesto and road map for marriage as a more perfect union." -William J. Doherty, Ph.D., Professor of Family Social Science, University of Minnesota, author of Take Back Your Marriage: Sticking Together in a World That Pulls Us Apart "Is your marriage where you want it to be? This book will challenge you to take it to the next level, beyond where you ever thought it could be. Your marriage can be more - wonderfully more, extraordinarily more, radically more!" -- Greg and Priscilla Hunt, BetterMarriages.org What kind of marriage do you want? Most couples don't want an ordinary, boring, routine relationship. They want excitement, fun, closeness, love. Marriage is an ancient institution rich with traditions and customs. As appealing as that may be, in today's modern culture, we want to forge our own path. We need security, but we also need excitement and adventure. Radical Marriage is a model for the next evolution of marriage and is new territory for committed relationships. Our marriage can be the greatest adventure of our life. It can be the vehicle for experiencing the excitement and fulfillment we've always wanted. We can only get so far on our own. To get the rest of the way, we need a committed partner. Radical Marriage promotes a much-needed paradigm shift from the perception of marriage as being old fashioned, obsolete, and with a high likelihood of failure, to a platform for the greatest adventure of our life. Radical Marriage is for couples with a good relationship who strongly believe that they are together for a reason, which is to experience life to the fullest through their relationship. This book provides solid guidance and strategies for creating a Radical Marriage, including- Radical Commitment (Chapter 2) Radical Communication (Chapters 3-6) Radical Intimacy (Chapter 7) Radical Romance (Chapter 8) Radical Sex (Chapter 9) Radical Living (Chapter 10) Radical Marriage will open your eyes, rock your world, and change your reality about marriage.