How to keep little annoyances from becoming a big deal.

God made a few perfect heads, the rest he covered with hair. Subject: Baldness A certain church was taking a missionary offering. As the plate was passed to one dour-/aced man, he growled, "I don't believe in missions." The usher replied, "Well, then take some out, brother, this offering is for the heathen." Subject: Offering A congregation in Florida installed a sound system on a trial basis. One reaction: "If I had wanted to hear, I would have moved up front." Subject: Hearing Across one-half century of Hoover Rupert's ministry, humor has been a part of his preaching portfolio. This collection includes nearly 300 stories collected by the author that could be used by any preacher. The stories are listed alphabetically by subject or theme. Themes range from religious to secular. A selection of topics includes: accidents, babies, Bible, complaints, church, Devil, ecumenical, faith, heaven, Jesus, music, offering, prayer, theology, viewpoint, words and others. Hoover Rupert, Gaithersburg, Maryland, served United Methodist churches in Michigan. He is a graduate of Baker and Boston universities and holds four honorary doctorates. For 32 years he wrote a syndicated column "Accent On Loving." Rupert is the author of 17 books and many magazine and curriculum articles.

Confirmed Bachelor Matthew Powers Was In Need Of A Nursemaid! His aunt Bess assured him that she could find a suitable woman, one who would tend the orphaned infant under his care in exchange for a paper marriage. All Matthew had to do was marry by proxy and wait for his bride to arrive…. Penniless and alone, Rose had accepted the position, but found herself unable to face her new husband. So Aunt Bess had come to the rescue again, arranging for Rose to stand in for the "temporarily detained" bride. But what would happen when the taciturn Captain Powers learned that his "houseguest" was really his "wife"? And who was going to be the one to tell him?

Practical family ministry for both the churched and the unchurched are the foundation of this book. African-American churches can help prevent dropouts from society and restore those who have dropped out. They can help strengthen single-parent homes and prevent divorce--but it needs the kind of vision and strategies Richardson describes.

Hard Luck , Alaska. Location: north of the Arctic Circle. Population: 150 (mostly men!). But the O'Halloran brothers, who run a bush-plane charter service called Midnight Sons, are heading a campaign to bring women to town. Their town might be cold, but their hearts are warm. Brides for Brothers Sawyer O'Halloran, the middle brother, isn't entirely in favour of this scheme. But he considers himself immune to any woman – even the lovely Abbey Sutherland. She's arriving in Alaska within days. However, there's a complication…or two. She hasn't told them she's arriving with kids! The Marriage Risk Like his brothers, Charles O'Halloran has a distrust of marriage in general – and of anyone related to Catherine Harmon Fletcher in particular. She's the woman who tried to destroy his parents' marriage. Too bad Lanni Caldwell, the only woman he's ever really fallen for, is Catherine's granddaughter… Daddy's Little Helper Mitch Harris is a friend of the O'Hallorans, and he's responsible for law and order in Hard Luck. He's also the widowed father of a little girl – although he never talks about his marriage. But it's not long before seven–year–old Chrissie decides that her new teacher, Bethany Ross, is the perfect candidate for wife and mum!

“Garrison Keillor made it possible, after twenty years of black humor…to be both funny and nice, hip and winsome, scathing and loving, all in the flick of a single many-barbed quip——The Washington Post Book World “Keillor’s literary style is as flexible and assured as his vocal delivery. It can slip from mood to mood so subtly and quickly you’re never quite sure where you are…. [His] writing has the silvery slip of running water, so graceful and easy it’s hard to believe it can carry so much that is jagged and unresolved. His integrity lies in his not smoothing away those rough edges in the swift current of his prose; they’re bruisingly, sometimes cuttingly there.” —The Village Voice

Named a MOST ANTICIPATED book by Vogue, Literary Hub, The Millions, Good Housekeeping, and Oprah Daily From the ​prizewinning, debut fiction author: an exhilarating virtuosic story collection about women navigating the wilds of male-dominated Alaskan society. Set in Newman's home state of Alaska, Nobody Gets Out Alive is a collection of dazzling, courageous stories about women struggling to survive not just grizzly bears and charging moose but the raw, exhausting legacy of their marriages and families. In "Howl Palace"--winner of The Paris Review's Terry Southern Prize, a Best American Short Story, and Pushcart Prize selection--an aging widow struggles with a rogue hunting dog and the memories of her five ex-husbands while selling her house after bankruptcy. In the title story, "Nobody Gets Out Alive," newly married Katrina visits her hometown of Anchorage and blows up her own wedding reception by flirting with the host and running off with an enormous mastodon tusk. Alongside stories set in today's Last Frontier--rife with suburban sprawl, global warming, and opioid addiction--Newman delves into remote wilderness of the 1970s and 80s, bringing to life young girls and single moms in search of a wilder, freer, more adventurous America. The final story takes place in a railroad camp in 1915, where an outspoken heiress stages an elaborate theatrical in order to seduce the wife of her husband's employer, revealing how this masterful storyteller is "not only writing unforgettable, brilliantly complex characters, she's somehow inventing souls" (Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light).

This inspirational book of 40 meditations for couples applies God's principles for living from the book of Proverbs to the contemporary issues of marriage.