Cynthia Ruchti

When we think of the first Christmas, we often focus on the wide-eyed young mother and her faithful fiancé, on tattered shepherds and singing angels and road-weary wise men. But the Holy Spirit was there--and just as He hovered over the waters in the beginning, He hovers over every page of the Christmas story. This Advent, join acclaimed author Cynthia Ruchti for a faith-building, eye-opening walk with the Holy Spirit. Highlighting the power and presence of the Spirit at work in the sacred story, each entry of this 26-day devotional contains· core verses on the Spirit's role in the narrative of Scripture· devotional thoughts perfect for the whole family· often overlooked details that will change the way you see and understand the Christmas story· space for pondering and reflection· practical application with optional projects to help you prepare and celebrate· an Advent prayerBefore the babe was conceived, the Holy Spirit was already at work, setting the stage and preparing the hearts of the biblical characters we know and love. This season, let Him set the stage and prepare your heart too.

In 1901... Lilly Galloway has lived and worked at her half-sister's hotel since her parents died, and her pies and biscuits bring in customers from miles around. She doesn't mind at all that one burly lumberjack, lan "Moose" Lamoreaux, seems to find a lot of excuses to spend time helping out at the hotel. But when the logging camp's cook disappears, and evidence suggests Moose is involved, Lilly must decide whether God is calling her to pull up roots and move to the city, or to blaze a new trail forward with the man she loves. Today... Elliott Lansing agrees to keep his grandmother's failing B&B up and running while she takes an extended vacation. Quickly realizing that he's not equipped to run an inn, much less help it thrive in a village that isn't exactly a tourist destination, he enlists the aid of his college campus ministry friend, Piper Merrill, now a marketing genius. Searching for stories about the inn they can use for advertising, Piper discovers a long-ago mystery that could put the inn and Embarrass on the map-or ruin everyone's reputations. As clues surface, so does the undeniable attraction between Elliott and Piper. When they find the missing treasure, will they also find they were meant to be together all along?

A frank and funny look at what to do when together is too close Two's company, especially for those who love each other. So what happens when--due to retirement, working from home, or even running a business together--spouses find that being in the same space all the time is awkward, complex, annoying, and just plain challenging? How can partners co-exist without co-exhausting each other? Cynthia Ruchti and Becky Melby know all too well how adjusting to a new, all-the-time closeness can cause the bliss of marriage to form blisters. Drawing from their experiences, and from men and women across the country in the same situation, the authors take a deep breath and dive into the root causes of the discomfort. They dig into the ways God's Word addresses the topic, and they offer practical tips for learning the spiritual, emotional, relational, and even physical steps that can help readers replace irritation with peace. For any Christian who wants their home to be a refuge of peace and serenity for all--not just themselves--and who wants to know they aren't alone in the mental and physical claustrophobia of too much togetherness, Spouse in the House is a vulnerable, charming, and pragmatic breath of hope.

"Ruchti has a gift for taking characters through their grief and lifting them to a place higher than themselves . . . The message of hope in a situation that seems hopeless is especially needed now."--Library Journal starred review"An emotional roller coaster of loss, faith, hope, and redemption. I couldn't stop reading."--Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author***While her humanitarian husband Liam has been digging wells in Africa, Mara Jacobs has been struggling. She knows she's supposed to feel a warm glow that her husband is nine time zones away, caring for widows and orphans. But the reality is that she is exhausted, working a demanding yet unrewarding job, trying to manage their three detention-prone kids, failing at her to-repair list, and fading like a garment left too long in the sun. Then Liam's three-year absence turns into something more, changing everything and plunging her into a sunless grief. As Mara struggles to find her footing, she discovers that even when hope is tenuous, faith is fragile, and the future is unknown, we can be sure we are not forgotten . . . or unloved. With emotionally evocative prose that tackles tough topics with tenderness and hope, award-winning author Cynthia Ruchti invites you on a journey of the heart you won't soon forget." Ruchti delivers well-rounded, believable characters and has a sure hand at charting the ways they process complex emotions. This packs an emotional punch."--Publishers Weekly"Ruchti delves deeply into the ebb and flow of Mara's struggles and weaves in themes of guilt, betrayal, hope, and redemption."--Booklist

She helps others manage their desperate lives--but who will help her? Clinical psychologist Camille Brooks isn't put off by the lifestyle of her hoarding clients. After all, she lost her mother to the crippling anxiety disorder. She'll go a long way to help others avoid the same pain and loss. Despite Camille's expertise, her growing audience for her Let in the Light podcast, and the national recognition she's gaining for her creative coaching methods, there are some things she isn't prepared for. A client who looks far too much like her mom catches her off guard. And the revelation that she's also hoarding something sends her spinning. Can she stand to let the light into her own life with the help of a friend who wants to stand by her for life and the God who created and loves her? Or will she find that defeating her demons proves too much to bear?

These no-longer-newlyweds want out of this road trip--and their marriage. Too bad they can't find the off-ramp. Weeks away from their one-year anniversary, Mallory and Connor Duncan can't even agree on how to end their marriage. But when a last-minute crisis lands them on a three-thousand-mile road trip together, Mallory wonders if their story may not be over after all. The trip begins to unravel before the key is even in the ignition, and an at-risk, trouble-seeking missile of an eleven-year-old is unexpectedly launched into their travel plans. Close quarters get even tighter, and the couple believes this whole experience will spell disaster. But as new challenges pop up around each bend, Mallory and Connor are surprised by the strengths they see in one another--and how they complement each other. Their first year of marriage hasn't been the arm-in-arm togetherness they expected . . . but can they find a new beginning when the road ends?

In this new and updated release of a popular Christmas novella collection, peer behind the closed doors of a Wisconsin tourist town gone dormant for the winter season. Watch as the drama and romance start to heat up-just as Lola the innkeeper promised her four single friends a year ago when she gifted them with her prayers and a Christmas cactus. Will each woman find love-along with cactus blooms-as promised?

Emmalyn hadde aldri trodd en person kunne føle seg så alene. Å holde liv i et ekteskap med en mann som ikke lever sammen med deg, er ingen lett oppgave, i hvert fall ikke når mannen sitter bak fengselsmurer. Det han gjorde, slukket en lengsel i henne og satte ekteskapet deres på fem års ventetid. Det som ikke falt i grus den kvelden, har falt i grus i mellomtiden. Nå, i et selvpålagt eksil på øya Madeline, begynner Emmalyn å bygge opp igjen ei gammel hytte de kjøpte da livet ga mening. Renoveringen legger nok tak over hodet hennes, men et hjem trenger mer enn tak og vegger - slik et ekteskap trenger mer enn avlagte løfter og en vigselsattest. Med bare få måneder til ektemannen løslates må Emmalyn finne ut hvordan de kan bli et par igjen - selv er han taus.

Josiah Chamberlain's life's work revolves around repairing other people's marriages. When his own is threatened by his wife's unexplained distance, and then threatened further when she's unexpectedly plunged into an unending fog, Josiah finds his expertise, quick wit and clever quips are no match for a relationship that is clearly broken. Feeling betrayed, confused, and ill-equipped for a crisis this crippling, he reexamines everything he knows about the fragility of hope and the strength of his faith and love. Love seems to have failed him. Will what's left of his faith fail him, too? Or will it be the one thing that holds him together and sears through the impenetrable wall that separates them?

Lucy and Charlie Tuttle agree on one thing: they're committed to each other for life. Trouble is, neither of them expected life to look like this. While Charlie retired early, Lucy is devoted to a long-term career . . . until the day she has no choice. Forced to retire from her position as music educator in a small Midwestern K-8 school, Lucy can only watch helplessly as the program her father started years ago disintegrates before her eyes. As the music fades and a chasm separates her from the passion of her heart, Lucy wonders if her faith's song has gone silent, too. The musical score of her life seems to be missing all the notes. When a simple misstep threatens to silence Lucy forever, a young boy and his soundless mother change the way she sees--and hears--everything.

For years, society and especially the church required that we hide our brokenness and pretend that all was well, even when it was terribly broken. Now, people have become comfortable with our tattered edges, our character weaknesses, our "old, familiar sins," and forgotten that God doesn't intend to leave us in a state of disrepair. God calls us to something other than the wild pendulum swing from hiding our scars to flaunting them. Rather than resigning ourselves to desperately clinging to shreds of recovery, or discarding the broken, threadbare, scarred relationships, we can engage in the process of healing through Christ. Jesus reclaims what we fear was damaged beyond repair. His soul-mend leaves hope where the wound once was. And, as we engage in the process of healing, we grow in appreciation of how God tends and transforms our wounds.

Emmalyn and Max Ross may have to endure the fight of their lives to mend the tattered fabric of their marriage. His actions ensured she could never be a mother and put him in prison, giving their relationship a court-mandated five-year time-out. On a self-imposed exile to beautiful but remote Madeline Island, one of the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior, Emmalyn has just a few months left to figure out if and how they can ever be a couple again. Nudged along by the exuberant owner of the Wild Iris Inn and Cafe, a circle of misfit people in their small town, and a young girl who desperately needs someone to love her, Emmalyn restores an island cottage that could become a home and begins to restore her heart by learning what it means to love unconditionally. Yet even as hope begins to find a place within the cottage walls, Emmalyn still wonders if she's ready for Max's release. She may be able to rebuild a cottage, but can she rebuild a marriage?

Where do you turn when changing your name doesn't give you the anonymity you want? When running hundreds of miles away isn't far enough? When your search for a place to belong lands you right back where you began? One phone call destroys all hope Becca Morrow has for a life beyond the shame of her past. Further discredited by the death of her elderly, ailing patient--the mother of the influential businessman, Isaac Hughes--Becca's new life is shattered and her longing for love slips away. Working to clear her name, Becca must learn to see the beauty in the ugliness of dying, to accept the precious tenderness in forgiveness, and--at last--discover that where she belongs isn't as much about her family history as it is about her faith in the One to whom she'll always belong.

It is one thing to live with the consequences of your own choices. But what happens when your life is forever altered because of someone else's toxic actions? With the assurance of a God who hears and understands, Ragged Hope reaches out to survivors and those who care about, counsel, or long to make a difference in their lives.

Becky rocks a baby that rocked her world. Sixty years earlier, with her fiancE Drew in the middle of the Korean Conflict, Ivy throws herself into her work at a nursing home to keep her sanity and provide for the child Drew doesn't know is coming. Ivy cares for Anna, an elderly patient who taxes Ivy's listening ear until the day she suspects Anna's tall tales are not the ramblings of dementia. They're fragments of Anna's disjointed memories of a remarkable life. Finding a faint thread of hope she can't resist tugging, Ivy records Anna's memoir, scribbling furiously after hours to keep up with the woman's emotion-packed, grace-hemmed stories. Is Ivy's answer buried in Anna's past? Becky, Ivy, Anna--three women fight a tangled vine of deception in search of the blossoming simplicity of truth.