LIbRARY + Books + Devotionals

We have found that many modern books on spirituality are not prevalent in our local libraries. So, we have started a small library with both mom and kids books you can check out each week! Kids books can be checked out for a two-week period and mom's books can be checked out for four weeks. To reserve the book at the next GiG meeting, simply fill out the form next to the book and we'll place a hold for you.

Apart from reading God's Word, books and devotionals are a great resource to grow in grace as a mother and in your relationship with the Lord. Whether you're looking for books on motherhood, spirituality, or a daily devotional, we've compiled a few of our favorites for you here. 

 
 

Growing in Grace Library

FOR MOMS

  • Family Worship, Donald S. Whitney: Gathering together for worship is an indispensable part of your family’s spiritual life. It is a means for God to reveal himself to you and your loved ones in a powerful way. This practical guide by Donald S. Whitney will prove invaluable to families—with or without children in the home—as they practice God-glorifying, Christ-exalting worship through Bible reading, prayer, and singing. Includes a discussion guide in the back for small groups.
 
  • Shepherding a Child's Heart, Tedd Tripp: Written for parents with children of any age, this insightful book provides perspectives and procedures for shepherding your child's heart into the paths of life. Shepherding a Child's Heartgives fresh biblical approaches to child rearing.
 
  • Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full, Gloria Furman: Grocery shopping. Soccer practice. Dirty dishes. Motherhood is tough, and it often feels like the to-do list just gets longer and longer every day—making it hard to experience true joy in God, our children, and the gospel. In this encouraging book for frazzled moms, Gloria Furman helps us reorient our vision of motherhood around what the Bible teaches. Showing how to pursue a vibrant relationship with God—even when discouragement sets in and the laundry still needs to be washed—this book will help you treasure Christ more deeply no matter how busy you are.
 
  • Missional Motherhood, Gloria Furman: There's no such thing as “just” a mom. Despite the routine tasks and mundane to-do lists, motherhood is anything but insignificant. God has designed motherhood as part of his greater plan to draw people to himself—instilling all women, whether called to traditional mothering or not, with an eternal purpose in nurturing others. In this book, Gloria Furman searches the Scriptures for the mission of God in motherhood. She opens our eyes to God's life-giving promises—promises intended to empower each and every woman as she makes disciples in her home, in her neighborhood, and around the world.
 
  • Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids, Dr. Kara E. Powell & Dr. Chap Clark - Nearly every Christian parent in America would give anything to find a viable resource for developing within their kids a deep, dynamic faith that "sticks" long term. Sticky Faith delivers. Research shows that almost half of graduating high school seniors struggle deeply with their faith. Recognizing the ramifications of that statistic, the Fuller Youth Institute (FYI) conducted the “College Transition Project” in an effort to identify the relationships and best practices that can set young people on a trajectory of lifelong faith and service. Based on FYI findings, this easy-to-read guide presents both a compelling rationale and a powerful strategy to show parents how to actively encourage their children’s spiritual growth so that it will stick to them into adulthood and empower them to develop a living, lasting faith. Sticky Faith is geared to spark a movement that empowers adults to develop robust and long-term faith in kids of all ages.
 
  • Mom Enough, Desiring God: Are you mom enough? The cover of a popular magazine asked this haunting question in bold red letters that hung over the startling image of a young mother nursing her four-year-old. When the issue hit newsstands, it re-ignited a longstanding mommy war in American culture. But it turns out this was the wrong question, pointing in the wrong direction. There is a higher and more essential question faced by mothers: Is he God enough? This short book with twenty-four short contributions from seven young mothers, explores the daily trials and worries of motherhood. In the trenches, they have learned how to treasure God and depend on his grace. The paradox of this book is the secret power of godly mothering. Becoming mom enough comes as a result of answering the burning question above with a firm no.
 

  • Don’t Make Me Count to Three, Ginger Hubbard: Do you find yourself threatening, repeating your instructions, or raising your voice in an attempt to get your children to obey? Are you discouraged because it seems you just can t reach the heart of your child? Through personal experience and the practical application of Scripture, Ginger Hubbard encourages and equips moms to reach past the outward behavior of their children and dive deeply into the issues of the heart. Ginger s candid approach will help moms move beyond the frustrations of not knowing how to handle issues of disobedience and into a confident, well-balanced approach to raising their children.
 
  • The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child's Heart for Eternity, Sally Clarkson: No calling is greater, nobler, or more fulfilling than that motherhood. Every day, as we nurture our children, mothers influence eternal destiny as no one else can. Tragically, today’s culture minimizes the vital importance of a mother’s role. By catching a vision of God’s original design and allowing it to shape your life, you can rediscover the joy and fulfillment to be found in the strategic role to which God in all his wisdom has called you, for a purpose far greater than you can ever imagine.
 
  • Parenting, Paul David Tripp: What is your calling as a parent? In the midst of folding laundry, coordinating carpool schedules, and breaking up fights, many parents get lost. Feeling pressure to do everything “right” and raise up “good” children, it’s easy to lose sight of our ultimate purpose as parents in the quest for practical tips and guaranteed formulas. In this life-giving book, Paul Tripp offers parents much more than a to-do list. Instead, he presents us with a big-picture view of God’s plan for us as parents. Outlining fourteen foundational principles centered on the gospel, he shows that we need more than the latest parenting strategy or list of techniques. Rather, we need the rescuing grace of God—grace that has the power to shape how we view everything we do as parents. Freed from the burden of trying to manufacture life-change in our children’s hearts, we can embrace a grand perspective of parenting overflowing with vision, purpose, and joy. 
 

  • Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus, Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson: All of us want to raise good kids. And we want to be good parents. But what exactly do we mean by “good?” And is “being good” really the point? Mother-daughter team Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson contend that every way we try to make our kids “good” is simply an extension of Old Testament Law—a set of standards that is not only unable to save our children, but also powerless to change them. No, rules are not the answer. What they need is GRACE. We must tell our kids of the grace-giving God who freely adopts rebels and transforms them into loving sons and daughters. If this is not the message your children hear, if you are just telling them to “be good,” then the gospel needs to transform your parenting too.
 

  • The Out of Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder, Carol Kranowitz, M.A.: The groundbreaking book that explains Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)--and presents a drug-free approach that offers hope for parents--now revised and updated. Difficulty with certain skills are often the first clues to Sensory Processing Disorder--a common but frequently misdiagnosed problem in which the central nervous system misinterprets messages from the senses. The Out-of-Sync Child offers comprehensive, clear information for parents and professionals--and a drug-free treatment approach for children. This revised edition includes new sections on vision and hearing, picky eaters, and coexisting disorders such as autism and ADHD, among other topics.
 

  • The Out of Sync Child Has Fun: Activities for Kids with Sensory Processing Disorder, Carol Kranowitz, M.A.: The first accessible guide to examine Sensory Processing Disorder, The Out-of-Sync Child touched the hearts and lives of thousands of families. Carol Stock Kranowitz continues her significant work with this companion volume, which presents more than one hundred playful activities specially designed for kids with SPD. Each activity in this inspiring and practical book is SAFE—Sensory-motor, Appropriate, Fun and Easy—to help develop and organize a child’s brain and body. Whether your child faces challenges with touch, balance, movement, body position, vision, hearing, smell, and taste, motor planning, or other sensory problems, this book presents lively and engaging ways to bring fun and play to everyday situations. This revised edition includes new activities, along with updated information on which activities are most appropriate for children with coexisting conditions including Asperger’s and autism, and more.
 

FOR KIDS

  • You Are Special, Max Lucado: Every day the small wooden people called Wemmicks do the same thing: stick either gold stars or gray dots on one another. The pretty ones--those with smooth wood and fine paint--always get stars. The talented ones do, too. Others, though, who can do little or who have chipped paint, get ugly gray dots. Like Punchinello. In this heartwarming children's tale from the best-selling pen of author Max Lucado, Eli the woodcarver helps Punchinello understand how special he is--no matter what other Wemmicks may think. It's a vital message for children everywhere: that regardless of how the world evaluates them, God cherishes each of them, just as they are.
 

  • Jesus Calling for Kids, Sarah Young: Devotions written as if Jesus is speaking directly to a child's heart. Based on her original Jesus Calling, this version has been adapted in a language and fashion that kids and tweens can relate to their everyday lives. After many years of writing in her prayer journal, missionary Sarah Young decided to listen to God with pen in hand, writing down what she believed He was saying to her through Scripture. Others were blessed as she shared her writings, until people all over the world were using her devotionals.  They are written from Jesus' point of view, thus the title Jesus Calling.  It is Sarah's fervent prayer that our Savior may bless readers, and now young readers, with His presence and His peace in ever deeper measure.
 

Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing, Sally Lloyd-Jones with Jago: From Jago and Sally Lloyd-Jones, the creators of the bestselling Jesus Storybook Bible, comes this gorgeous and innovative collection of 101 simple-yet- profound thoughts on faith. Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing shares profound spiritual truths from the Bible told in a conversational tone—drawing insights from creation, history, science, the writings of great thinkers and preachers and writers, and more—to turn the reader’s eyes toward the God who loves them with a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love. Perfect for family devotions, bedtime, story time, or even as a companion to The Jesus Storybook Bible, this accessible yet theologically rich book reveals biblical truth in word and image-all working together and designed to do one thing: to make the reader’s heart sing.

 

  • It Will Be Okay: Trusting God Through Fear and Change, by Lysa TerKeurst: In the end, it will be okay because God is always with us. Whether we like it or not, growing up brings change. For many children, this conjures fears that are sometimes real and sometimes imagined. How can kids learn that even when they face new and unfamiliar situations, they don’t have to be afraid?  Little Seed and Little Fox are facing changes and brand new circumstances—and they don’t like it one bit! Through this unlikely friendship, children will discover that no matter how new or fearful their circumstances, God is always with them. The whimsical art by Natalia Moore will put a smile on kids’ faces and put their minds at ease. Just as Little Seed and Little Fox learn to trust that the Farmer is good and kind, children will also learn to trust God. Written by New York Times bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst, It Will Be Okay will help kids discover that the end, it really will be okay because we have a God who is good and kind and always with us.
 
  • The Plans I Have for You, by Amy Parker: The Plans I Have for You combines playful rhyming text written by bestselling children’s book author Amy Parker with whimsical illustrations by award-winning artist Vanessa Brantley-Newton to create a book that inspires readers of all ages to dream about their future. God has great plans for each and every one of us, and this book encourages children to think about the talents that make them special and will help them imagine how God may use our unique traits to make the world a better place.
 
  • God Gave Us You, by Lisa Tawn Bergren and Laura J. Bryant: When a charming polar bear cub climbs into bed one night, she asks her Mama a very important question--one that little "human cubs" often wonder about, too: "Where did I come from?" Perfect for bedtime, naptime, storytime or anytime, God Gave Us You provides a valuable opportunity to build children's self-esteem every day and assure each one that he or she truly is a welcomed, precious, and treasured gift from the Lord. 
 
  • Thank You God, by P K Hallinan: Features simple rhyming verses that are accompanied by colourful illustrations to describe the many things for which a small child can thank God. This book is suitable for ages toddler and upwards.
 

  • Because I Love You, by Max Lucado: A long time ago a wise man named Shaddai built a wonderful village for children to live in. He talked to them and sang for them and told them stories. He gave them everything they needed. And with his own hands Shaddai built a protective wall around their village, rock by rock. He did all of this for just one reason—because he loved them. One day Paladin, the village's most curious child, discovers something troubling about the wall. Something that makes him wonder about Shaddai's love. Could there be a mistake? Let this timeless story of a curious boy's choice and a caring man's sacrificial response help you make the infinite love of their Heavenly Father as real to your kids as your own love. Because they need to understand about Him what you have already learned—that everything God does throughout our lives, He does for one reason only, and for the best reason of all: "Because I Love You."
 

  • You Are Mine, by Max Lucado: Bigger allowances. Better clothes. More toys. Bigger, better, more is how the world determines who's special and who's not. It's a message your kids are hearing every day. But it's not God's message. His truth is simple and never-changing: It's not what you have, it's Whose you are. And it's a truth that the lovable Wemmick, Punchinello, hears again at the knee of his creator in this faithful, fully illustrated sequel to You Are Special. Punchinello's lesson in love will help you speak God's heart to the heart of every child: You are special, not because of the things you have, but because you are Mine.
 

HOLD A LIBRARY BOOK FOR PICK-UP AT THE NEXT GIG MEETING

 

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

In addition to the books in our Lending Library, we recommend these books and devotionals if you're looking for a way to grow in your faith. We hope you love them! 

Books on Spirituality

Devotionals