Each year 63,000 couples choose to marry in church. Growing Together: The Course is a flexible marriage preparation course for use by church leaders. The course is designed to help couples to develop a shared understanding of their future together through discussion of key issues on married life, and is suitable for those considering marriage or those already engaged and planning a wedding. It can be used alongside the popular Growing Together book which is aimed at the couples themselves. Guidance is provided on using the material with groups of couples over a number of weekly sessions or as a one-day course. Subjects covered include: Past, present and future Reasons for getting married Communication Conflict Spiritual issues Us and them The wedding day Follow-up after the wedding How have we grown - a reunion course A CD-ROM is also included with worksheets, scripts of each session, graphics, a poster and course invitations.

In "Growing Together: Strengthening Your Relationship as Parents," Avery Nightingale offers a compelling guide for couples aiming to deepen their bond while navigating the challenges of parenthood. This book explores the transformative power of positive, connected, and respectful relationships, demonstrating how these attributes foster a thriving partnership and a stable, happy environment for children. Drawing from recent research and family life education, Nightingale provides a strength-based approach to building and maintaining a loving, communicative, and cooperative relationship. Through practical advice and insightful strategies, "Growing Together" shows how to turn challenges into opportunities for growth, ensuring that both your relationship and your parenting flourish. Embrace the journey of growing together and discover the keys to becoming a stronger, more united co-parenting team.

In their 30 years of shared ministry and marriage, Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa pastor Brian Brodersen and his wife, speaker and author Cheryl Brodersen, watched many couples struggle to build a lasting, fulfilling relationship. With the desire to understand God's path for their union, the Brodersens' turned to the Bible and learned how to view and experience marriage as an incredible gift from God. Now they share the ten essential "E" principles they discovered, showing readers how to: Entrust the relationship to God Eliminate unhealthy expectations Encourage one another Enlighten with spiritual truth Energize the relationship Endure by standing together in faith In this biblical and practical resource, newlyweds and longtime married couples will embrace the wholeness of God's plan for them to have the very best human love experience possible.

Until now little published work has focused on how horticulture and gardening can help to promote social inclusion for vulnerable groups. This guide looks at the ways in which social and therapeutic horticulture projects can help foster independence, build self esteem and provide training and employment opportunities for vulnerable groups.

This edited volume integrates research on people's relationships from childhood to later adulthood.

Drawing from the latest research in child psychology and personal anecdotes, this book offers practical advice and actionable tips to help parents strengthen their bond with their children and navigate the inevitable challenges that come with each age. From supporting a baby's early attachment to fostering independence in teenagers, Growing Togethercovers a wide range of topics that are essential for raising emotionally healthy and resilient children. With a focus on empathy, communication, and positive discipline, this book empowers parents to create a warm and loving environment where their children can thrive. Readers will learn how to set age-appropriate boundaries, communicate effectively with their children, and cultivate a strong sense of connection that will endure through the ups and downs of parenting. Whether dealing with tantrums, peer pressure, or transitions to a new school, Growing Togetheroffers guidance and support to navigate these challenges with grace and confidence. By implementing the principles outlined in this book, parents will be able to forge a deeper connection with their children and establish a strong foundation for a lifelong relationship built on trust, understanding, and love. Growing Togetheris a valuable resource for any parent seeking to parent with purpose and intentionality, creating a harmonious and fulfilling family dynamic.

Abstract: "Most studies of the opening of the Chinese economy focus at the national level. The few existing disaggregated analyses are limited to analyzing changes in agricultural production. The authors use an innovative village equilibrium model that accounts for nonseparability of household production and consumption decisions. This allows them to analyze the impact of trade liberalization on household production, consumption, and off-farm employment, as well as the interactions among these three aspects of household decisions. They use the village model to analyze the impact of price changes and labor demand, the two major pathways through which international trade affects households. Analyzing the impact of trade liberalization for one village in the Jiangxi province of China, the authors find changes in relative prices and outside village employment to have opposite impacts on household decisions. At the household level the impact of price changes dominates the employment impacts. Comparing full trade liberalization and the more limited Doha scenario, reactions are more modest in the latter case for most households, but the response is nonlinear to increasing depth of trade reforms. This is explained by household-specific transaction (shadow) prices in combination with endogenous choices to participate in the output markets. Rising income inequalities are a growing concern in China. Whether trade liberalization allows incomes to grow together or to grow apart depends on whether one accounts for the reduction in consumption demand when household members migrate. Assessing the net effect on the within-village income distribution, the authors find that poorer households that own draught power gain most from trade liberalization. The households that have to rely on the use of own labor for farm activities and are not endowed with traction power, nor with a link to employment opportunities in the prospering coastal regions, have fewer opportunities for adjustment."--World Bank web site.

Is someone afraid of children being happy? Do you believe that happy children would be at risk for maintaining discipline or relationships? The “democrazia affettiva” affective democracy, proposed here by Renato Palma, arose from a simple observation: the well-being of newcomers is our own well-being, the less effort we make children expend to grow, the less effort will be expended by our society tomorrow. All children are born happy. They love us unconditionally. Are we able to do the same? This is how the author in his clear and captivating voice recounts how all of us can try to live very pleasantly in this easy happiness. Even more at school where often a minimal dose of mistreatment, considered “acceptable,” is given as inevitable. This work gives us pause to reflect whilst inviting us to face any eventual problems with a culture of happiness, which is the same that our children can learn from adults who are joyously well disposed toward them.