Moms have been hoodwinked—tricked into believing lies that keep them from not only enjoying motherhood, but forging friendships with other moms who might tackle the tasks of motherhood differently. Myths such as “Mothering is natural, easy, and instinctive” cause moms to feel like failures if they have questions or apprehensions in raising their kids. Operating from the premise that “The way I mother is the right (and only) way” puts up fences between moms instead of building bridges of encouragement between them. Lies such as “I am my child’s choices” tempt moms to mistakenly believe that if their child makes a wrong choice then they, in turn, must be a bad mom.

In their encouraging “we’ve been there” style, Karen Ehman and Ruth Schwenk enable mothers to:

• Identify the ten myths of motherhood our current culture perpetuates
• Replace the lies with the truth of what God says in the Bible about mothering
• Acquire practical tools to help them form new and improved thought patterns and healthy behaviors
• Forge healthy, supportive relationships with other moms of all ages and stages
• Confidently embrace the calling of motherhood as they care for their families in their own unique way

 A six-session video Bible study for group or individual use is also available.

Mothers will find a fresh new vision for an age-old calling as they tackle the challenges and embrace the blessings of motherhood, instead of being taken in by the myths and “Mommy Wars.”

Because of culture, family, friends, or lack of biblical teaching, today’s wives and mothers are easily hoodwinked by a set of myths that have grown up around motherhood. Myths like:

• “Mothering is natural, easy, and instinctive.”
• “The way I mother is the right (and only) way.”
• “My parenting is only as good as my child’s choices.”
• “Serving my family is a subservient and antiquated role.”

All these lies are not only damaging to you and your family, but they are also opposed to the teachings and wisdom of the Bible.

In this audio study, Bible teachers and experienced mothers Karen Ehman and Ruth Schwenk have teamed up to encourage and inspire women to embrace their roles as mothers wholeheartedly yet realistically, whether they work outside the home, have a home business, or are stay-at-home moms.

Throughout this study, you and your mom’s group will be introduced to a healthier, more biblical vision of motherhood and learn realistic and attainable tips for parenting well and thriving as an individual.

Coordinating study guide available separately.

The Audio Bible Studies series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook’s direct narration of a book’s text, this audio Bible study includes high-quality, live audio sessions from the author that cover important Bible-based topics. These sessions will reflect the ambiance of the unique recording locations, immersing the listener into the teaching. While not required for the audio experience, these studies are designed to partner with the coordinating study guide, sold separately.

Kind, encouraging, and humorous, Karen Ehman helps us learn the essential practice of using our words more effectively–alleviating heartache and regret, reducing relational tension and conflict, lessening our stress levels, and growing our relationship with God.

From Bible times to modern times women have struggled with their words. What to say and how to say it. What not to say. When it is best to remain silent. And what to do when you’ve said something you wish you could now take back. In this audiobook a woman whose mouth has gotten her into loads of trouble shares the hows (and how-not-tos) of dealing with the tongue.

Beyond just a “how not to gossip” book, this book explores what the Bible says about the many ways we are to use our words and the times when we are to remain silent. Karen will cover using our speech to interact with friends, co-workers, family, and strangers as well as in the many places we use our words in private, in public, online, and in prayer. Even the words we say silently to ourselves. She will address unsolicited opinion-slinging, speaking the truth in love, not saying words just to people-please, and dealing with our verbal anger.

Christian women struggle with their mouths. Even though we know that Scripture has much to say about how we are–and are not–to use our words, this is still an immense issue, causing heartache and strain not only in family relationships, but also in friendships, work, and church settings.¬†

Also available: Keep It Shut small group video study and study guide.

What to say and how to say it. What not to say. When it’s best to remain silent. What to do when you’ve said something you wish you could take back. . . In this study, you’ll take a personal tour through the hows (and how-not-tos) of dealing with the tongue.

The Bible has a lot to say about the tongue and what kind of power it has. James tells us that it can corrupt the whole body and that it can’t be tamed. The book of Proverbs claims that “death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

This six-session study is designed to offer hope for all of us who struggle with the way we’ve used our words and practical wisdom for getting our tongues under control. Biblical, encouraging, and kind, New York Times bestselling author Karen Ehman will help you:

• Learn the essential practice of using our words (and our mannerisms!) more constructively.
• Understand what God has to say about our tongues by studying verses and figures from Scripture.
• Discern what far-reaching effects our speech has–whether it’s in private, in public, online, or in prayer.
• Gain practical insights into breaking habits of gossip, flattery, verbal retaliation, and people-pleasing.

Most of us have been affected by the heartache and injury that words can cause, not only in family relationships, but also in friendships, work, and church settings. This is your guidebook to fully realizing the power of the tongue and how to use your words in the service of truth and love.

Sessions include:

1. Sparks, Squabbles, Spats, and Such: Our Words Matter (19:00)
2. On Filling Gaps and Zipping Lips: Listen to Others, Talk to God (18:00)
3. Opinion-Slinging and Salty Speech: Assessing Our Digital Tongues (22:00)
4. Gossip, Flattery, and People-Pleasing: How to Speak the Truth in Love (22:00)
5. Pause Before You Pounce: On Cultivating Soft Speech (23:00)
6. As Sweet as Honey: Wonderful Ways to Use Your Words (23:00)

Coordinating study guide available separately.

The Audio Bible Studies series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook’s direct narration of a book’s text, this audio Bible study includes high-quality, live audio sessions from the author that cover important Bible-based topics. These sessions will reflect the ambiance of the unique recording locations, immersing the listener into the teaching. While not required for the audio experience, these studies are designed to partner with the coordinating study guide, sold separately.

Discover how your differences can become the strength of your marriage in this real-life guide to both living with and loving your spouse.

It is true that opposites attract–for a while. But often as the years go by in our marriages, opposites may also begin to attack. The habits and characteristics we once found endearing about our significant other are the exact things that drive us crazy years later!

Whether you and your spouse disagree about finances, parenting, or how to load the dishwasher, your differences don’t need to divide you. They can actually bring you closer together–and closer to God.

In Keep Showing Up, Karen Ehman shows you . . .

• How to play to each other’s strengths as you work on your own weaknesses
• The difference between having a soul mate and having a sole mate
• How to become a faithful forgiver who also forgets
• Strategies for avoiding the social media comparison trap
• Why it’s dangerous to mimic a friend’s marriage
• How to unearth the magic in the mundane
• Why a spouse who drives you crazy can drive you straight to Jesus

Throughout Keep Showing Up, Karen also includes ideas to implement in your marriage right now, such as powerful statements to speak to your spouse, date-night-on-a-shoestring suggestions, and discussion starters.

Bible verses to encourage your marriage, printable reminder quotes, and questions to discuss with your spouse are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.

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Many women are wired to control. You’re the ones who make sure the house is clean, the meals are prepared, the beds are made, the children are dressed, and everyone gets to work, school, and other activities on time.

But trying to control everything can be exhausting, and it can also cause friction with your friends and family.

This humorous, yet thought-provoking book guides you as you discover for yourself the freedom and reward of living a life “out of control,” in which you allow God to be seated in the rightful place in your life. Armed with relevant biblical and current examples (both to emulate and to avoid), doable ideas, new thought patterns, and practical tools to implement, Let It Go will gently lead you out of the land of over-control and into a place of quiet trust.

A companion video-based study for small groups is also available.

Our culture is self-obsessed – in our schedules, relationships, and especially online. (Can you say selfie?) But in this near-narcissism, people are less content than in decades past. Why? Because we forgot the joy that comes from putting others first. Doing so requires us to live alert, listening for “heart drops,” hints from those in our lives who need a helping hand or a generous dose of encouragement. Living alert lifts our own spirits, showing us that blessing others blesses us even more.

Listen, Love, Repeat offers biblical teaching and suggests doable actions that are simple, heart-tugging, sentimental, even sneaky and hilarious. This message:

• Presents scriptural examples of those who lived alert, including Jesus, who noticed those who least expected to be seen.

• Explains the role of good works for followers of Christ. They aren’t our ticket to heaven but they are our marching orders on earth.

• Gives creative ideas for showing love to friends and family, and suggests practical ways to reach out to the lonely, the marginalized, the outcast, and the odd duck. Additionally, it helps you comfort the grieving, showing what you can do when you don’t know what to say.

• Provides inspiration for blessing the “necessary people” in your life, those often-overlooked souls who help you get life done every day, and teaches you how to hug a porcupine by genuinely loving the hard-to-love.

As we scatter love, we create a safe space where we can openly share the gospel. We get to see lives changed right before our eyes. Most importantly, Listen, Love, Repeat will enable you to live a life that is full of kind deeds, not to selfishly shout, “Hey! Look at me!” but to humbly implore, “Will you look at Him?”

In this six-session Bible study, Karen Ehman, New York Times bestselling author of Keep it Shut, helps you rediscover the life-changing joy that comes from putting others first. In a culture that tells us a me-first, you-second way of living is the key to happiness, Ehman explains that the key to moving forward in almost every facet of your life is to embrace backward living.

Becoming a person who thinks about others first takes effort. It requires you to live alert. To be on the lookout in conversations for “heart drops”–hints of kindness you might grant to the person right in front of you, right where they are.

But it is worth it.

Listen, Love, Repeat gives you both the encouragement and practical, daily ways you can reach out to others with both planned and random acts of kindness. Topics include loving your family and friends, encouraging coworkers, reaching out to the lonely, blessing the “necessary people” who help you get life done every day but often go unnoticed, and many others who could use an act of thoughtfulness. An additional focus on modeling for your children a lifestyle that listens and loves is accompanied by doable ideas for you and for your family.

Sessions include:

1. Finding Your Big “Why?” (23:00)
2. Let Love Complete the Circle (23:00)
3. When You Live a Life of Welcome (22:00)
4. How to Hug a Porcupine and Squeeze a Skunk (26:00)
5. Family Matters (23:00)
6. The Boomerang of Blessing (28:00)

Coordinating study guide available separately.

The Audio Bible Studies series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook’s direct narration of a book’s text, this audio Bible study includes high-quality, live audio sessions from the author that cover important Bible-based topics. These sessions will reflect the ambiance of the unique recording locations, immersing the listener into the teaching. While not required for the audio experience, these studies are designed to partner with the coordinating study guide, sold separately.

You dream of making your presence really count in the lives of others, but you don’t know where-or how-to start. You want to be remembered as a woman who scattered kindness to everyone she knew, but you feel like your busy schedule constantly gets in the way.
In this practical and deeply touching guide-inspired by her book Reach Out, Gather In-popular author Karen Ehman gives you 101 actionable ideas you can implement today to truly make a difference in the lives of other people. Make Their Day is filled with creative ideas to connect with your family and friends on a deeper level throughout the year. This book will help you develop habits of kindness, reconnect with friends and family, and make encouraging people a priority. You’ll be able to put these ideas into action in real time with everyone in your life-even if hospitality doesn’t come naturally to you or you don’t think you have time.
Let’s outshine the negativity and hatred in our world, and reach out to others with love, just as God intended.

Kids bickering? Schedule jam-packed? Dishes and laundry both piled up high? Perhaps it’s time you pressed pause and took a moment for yourself. Pressing Pause offers you a calm way to start your day, to refresh yourself in Jesus and drink deeply of His presence so that you are ready to pour out love, time, and energy into the people who matter most to you.

With these 100 encouraging devotions, moms will:

• Begin¬†each day with Scripture
• Draw on God’s powers by discovering His Word
• Learn practical ways to love and serve

Pressing Pause is perfect for:

• Any¬†mother wanting to approach each day with a positive mindset and develop a closer relationship with God
• Motivational gifts, birthdays, Mother’s Day, or Christmas
• Moms,¬†ages 25-50

Whether you’re juggling a career, kids’ schedules, and church commitments or you’re covered in spit-up and anxious about what the next 18 years might hold, you can carve out a few quiet moments to rejuvenate your spirit.

Like most women, you want to open up your home and connect with others. But you don’t think you have the time or ability. Along comes Reach Out, Gather In.
Through devotionals and practical tips, New York Times bestselling author Karen Ehman will inspire you to put love into action in this forty-day journey of hospitality. Karen will help you with the how to and why of reaching out to others in meaningful ways. This book-part devotional, part practical handbook-will help you find loving ways to feed both the bodies and souls of the people whom God has placed in your life. In Reach Out, Gather In Karen will share some of her favorite recipes and hospitality traditions; ideas for menu planning and themed gatherings; sorta-from-scratch shortcuts for busy days when you need something delicious in a snap; motivating stories and biblical inspiration; reflective questions that will help you in journaling your own forty-day excursion; and decluttering and cleaning strategies.
This beautiful book highlights the why of hospitality, so that your home and life will grow to be a place where the gospel is displayed, drawing others closer to Christ and making a difference for eternity.

Are your days full? Are you tired and craving quiet for your soul? If days filled with obligations and never-ending to-do lists leave you feeling anxious and overwhelmed, you can find the peace your soul longs for.

As the companion to the best-selling devotional Pressing Pause, Settle My Soul invites you to carve out a few moments in your day to deepen your relationship with the Lord through 100 encouraging devotions.

Authors Karen Ehman and Ruth Schwenk are women who understand all that you’re juggling, and they desire for you to experience the refreshment that comes only from the Lord.

In Settle My Soul, with just a few minutes, you will discover:

• how you can connect with God,
• ways to set aside your busyness and worries,
• how to center your thoughts on Him and His word,
• and restoration of your peace of mind.

Each devotional includes a brief but meaningful devotional message, applicable scripture, guided prayer, and reflection questions.

Your life is loud. However, if you will just press pause for a few minutes each day, you can discover what Jesus longs to give you: His peace.

When Life is Filled with All the Things, Begin Your Days with the Most Important Thing of All
Life is just . . . a lot. Relationships are hard. Responsibilities are piled high. And it seems like all the things are distracting you from the very best things of all. There’s little time left for yourself-or for connecting with Jesus.
No wonder you feel anxious in your mind and hurried in your heart. You desperately long for calm amidst your clamoring duties, stacked schedule, and life’s unexpected circumstances. But where do you begin?
More than anything else, your heart needs a refreshing encounter with God each day. Trusting God in All the Things offers women like you a way forward so you can experience the confident calm you crave.

These ninety encouraging devotions will help you face life with God’s peace and renewed strength.
Start your day here, with this book, where you’ll find the calming reassurance of God, who is the only One who can truly be trusted in all the things.

Are you overwhelmed by others’ unrealistic expectations of you? Do you feel torn in dozens of directions as you try to make everyone around you happy? If you’re ready to end the cycle of approval seeking, New York Times bestselling author and recovering people pleaser Karen Ehman is here to help!

When Making Others Happy Is Making You Miserable shares the refreshing, heartfelt lessons that Karen learned firsthand during her own journey of breaking free from people pleasing in order to live out her God-given purpose. Let Karen be your new go-to guide as you learn to successfully break the destructive pattern of people pleasing and start fully embracing the life God has called you to lead.

With equal parts humor and vulnerability, Karen explores why it’s so easy to fall into people-pleasing behaviors and reminds us that we can’t fulfill our divine purpose if we’re too busy living everyone else’s. She offers her timely advice for living with less overwhelm and with more peace and purpose, sharing words of wisdom that will help you:

• Prioritize what God says above what other people think
• Live your life without worrying about the opinions and expectations of others
• Cultivate a strategy for knowing when to say yes and how to say no
• Create and maintain healthy boundaries with the pushers, pouters, guilt bombers and others who try to call the shots in¬†your life
• Learn to navigate the tension between pleasing God and loving your community¬†

Join Karen as she encourages you to walk closely–and confidently–with our loving Creator, despite the opinions and expectations of others. It’s time to end the people-pleasing game and finally enjoy the peaceful and purposeful life that you deserve.

A self-assessment quiz, memory verses, and additional resources are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.

Women are being pulled in three directions. They sense the desire to pursue a career or perhaps a home-based business, utilizing their God-given talents and abilities and in keeping with their interests. Many long to be married and to transform into the biblical wife God intended them to be, although they are often uncertain just what that actually looks like. Some desire to be a mother who has her priorities straight and is serving her family whole-heartedly without neglect. The question is… can she do it all?

In these six sessions, bestselling author Karen Ehman guides women through answering the particular call that God has on their individual life. If they could learn to get their marching orders from Him rather than listening to the world or trying to replicate the lifestyle of another mom or group of moms, they could go forth in confidence knowing that they are fulfilling the call He has placed on their life. Could that mean they make some money at home or in the workforce? Could they be a full-time at-home mom with babies and small children? Could they homeschool? Could their kids attend a traditional school? Could they help run their husband’s business? The answer to all of the above questions is yes!!! Women can have it all, just not always all at the same time! It is all about seasons and strategic selections. And it is all about their bottom line in life which should be to give glory to God–meaning to make HIM famous by living a life that gives those around them an accurate picture of just who God is so that others, in turn, will desire a relationship with Him as well.

Sessions include:

1. The Prison of People Pleasing (20:30)
2. Just Who Is Calling the Shots? (23:00)
3. To Tell the Truth (18:30)
4. You’re Capable, but Are You Called? (21:00)
5. Must Be Nice (20:30)
6. Your People and Your Punch List (20:00)

Coordinating study guide available separately.

The Audio Bible Studies series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook’s direct narration of a book’s text, this audio Bible study includes high-quality, live audio sessions from the author that cover important Bible-based topics. These sessions will reflect the ambiance of the unique recording locations, immersing the listener into the teaching. While not required for the audio experience, these studies are designed to partner with the coordinating study guide, sold separately.

This follow-up devotional to the New York Times bestseller Keep It Shut takes a deeper look at the advice and commands of Scripture concerning the tongue, offering practical how-to’s that will inspire you to use your words to build, bless, encourage, and praise.

Each day we speak thousands of words in dozens of places. One thing is certain about the words we speak, type, and text: they are powerful, and they have consequences. They can impart love and life or deliver discouragement and defeat.

No wonder Scripture contains more than 3,500 verses about the power of the tongue. This devotional will take you on a journey over the next forty days to learn to choose and use your words wisely–saving you a boatload of regret and wounded relationships.

Each of the forty interactive entries includes a Scripture-verse focus for the day, a story or teaching point, and takeaways. Each entry ends with a prayer prompt. The entries in Zip It build upon each other, equipping you with new tools for how–or how not–to use your words.

Ultimately, Zip It will challenge you to use your mouth with godly purposes. To build . . . not to break. To bless . . . not to badger. To encourage . . . not to embitter. To praise . . . not to pounce.

Action steps that will help you carry out the directives of each devotion are included in the audiobook companion PDF download.