The Whole Life: 52 Weeks of Biblical Self-Care
Available for preorder on Amazon.com.
Many of us live at a pace that is impossible to keep. Unrelenting busyness might feel necessary, but it can lead to chronic stress and burnout that hinders our love for God and others. Instead of adding more to our long to-do list, counselors Eliza Huie and Esther Smith guide readers in how to think biblically about their whole life. They give Christians a framework for biblical self-care that will help them live for Christ by stewarding the spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical aspects of life.
The Whole Life: 52 Weeks of Biblical Self-Care outlines a balanced life of stewardship, offering practical strategies for Christians to grow in honoring God and caring for others. The authors focus on six key areas: faith, health, purpose, community, work, and rest. Each chapter addresses a specific topic and guides readers in thinking biblically about their whole life.
Breaking down the misconceptions that self-care is not biblical, The Whole Life reveals that caring for yourself doesn’t mean you are being selfish or lazy. Instead, it’s a way of stewarding every part of your life for God’s glory and the good of others. Contrary to what our culture might lead us to believe, exhaustion and burnout are not unavoidable pitfalls of a faithful Christian life. Instead, they are warning signs that we need to turn to God for daily help. This book will reorient readers to the core value of resting their heart, mind, and strength in Christ.
Chronic Illness: Walking by Faith
Available on Amazon.com.
Is chronic illness taking over your heart as much as your body?
Physical symptoms and limitations change all aspects of life, leading to losses and to unique challenges that are difficult to navigate. Writing from her own experience with these issues, Esther Smith focuses heavily on encouragement and practical application, showing you how to release guilt and shame, ask for help, balance work and rest, and get through days of difficult symptoms.
Each day, you will be encouraged as you consider how God uses illness in sanctifying, kingdom-advancing ways to display his glory and work in your heart.
But God, Wouldn’t I Be More Useful to You If I Were Healthy?
Available on Amazon.com.
But God, wouldn’t I be more useful to you if I were healthy?
Chronic pain and illness come with many questions. Perhaps no questions cause more confusion than the ones that arise when you are pulled out of a thriving life of work that benefits the world, only to spend your hours, days, and weeks languishing in bed.
It just doesn’t make sense. Why, God? Why would you take away my thriving career when it took me years to get to this point? Why would you take away my ability to serve and help and contribute?
In this first book in the Chronic Pain and the Christian Life series, explore what it looks like to live a life of work, service, and rest, even when the pain doesn’t go away.
When Chronic Pain and Illness Take Everything Away: How to Mourn Our Losses
Available on Amazon.com.
Chronic pain, illness, and disability take so much away. Sometimes it seems as though they take everything we have ever loved and held dear.
Our physical abilities and our jobs. Our current passions and future dreams. Our finances and our friends. Our sense of community and our ability to engage the world in ways we could before.
Chronic pain takes away our sense of self and who we always thought ourselves to be. How in the world are we supposed to deal with this fact?
In this second book in the Chronic Pain and the Christian Life series, I hope to show you how to mourn your losses – everything that pain, illness, and disability has taken away. I hope to show you what to do when life is empty and filled with grief. I hope to point you to the God who gives us Himself when nothing else in life makes sense.
