The Good Guys Shou
The Full Circle
The First Fifteen
The First Exile
The First 27 Days
The Finish Line Is
The Final Showdown
The Dragon Slayer
The Devils We Know
The Devil You Do o

The Great Lie
The Great White Sh
The Hidden Immunit
The Instigator
The Jocks vs. the
The Line Will Be D
The Martyr Approac
The Past Will Eat
The Penultimate St
The Poison Apple N
<<      >>
The Good Things in Life Aren’t Easy” from The Art of Marriage. We asked The Art of Marriage expert Tom Rath what was the most surprising discovery he learned while researching this subject. Here’s what he said: “I was stunned at the amount of research and the number of books that were available on this subject. Some of them were written by ‘experts’ who weren’t even married! A couple of other research projects, such as one conducted by the Barna Research Group, actually showed that a person’s happiness can be negatively affected when they become too ‘successful.’ What?! Is success bad? What if you have to go on stage and make a speech in front of a lot of people? Will that make you unhappy? As it turned out, my hypothesis that becoming successful could be a ‘ticking bomb’ for a marriage was incorrect. It turns out that ‘success’ and ‘failure’ are not the variables that contribute to a great marriage, but rather the level of commitment a person shows to their spouse and their willingness to serve and sacrifice for their spouse. So, please don’t sell your marriage short to reach your goals.” It is time to put down the career papers and the parenting journals. Go on a date, and let us know if it works. And please don’t think that because you are single that your mate is also unhappy. In fact, if you’re reading this, it is quite possible that your spouse has read this book and is smiling. There are just as many happily married people as there are happily single people. A study by Dr. John Gottman of the University of Washington showed that married couples who had happy marriages were equally happy regardless of whether they were single or not. It is how we make the choices we do, and how our choices impact our happiness that shapes who we are. Have fun with that. It won’t be easy, and no one expects it to be. But it just might work. About the Author For more than 30 years, Charles (Chuck) Roper served in a variety of leadership positions within Tyndale Church. As President and CEO, he led a team of more than 180 who supported, guided, and challenged each other in ministry as they cared for people from the U.S., Israel, and parts of the world beyond. He was a gifted pastor who taught at Tyndale in seminary and at a number of colleges. Charles and his wife Jean married in 1958. She died in 1999. The couple had four children: Brad, Dan, Bruce, and Beth. His passion for the study of God’s Word, prayer, discipleship, and leadership enabled him to enjoy rich, abundant, rewarding relationships with a great many others. He was a gifted preacher, a seasoned counselor, and an example of a godly husband and father. He served as a board member for Christian Leadership Ministries and the Christian College Coalition. Chuck graduated from Tyndale University Seminary in December, 1988. Charles Roper at age 3 with his father, George Roper, Tyndale Church founder, (1899-1987). Charles Roper at age 5, second son in a family of five boys. Author Bio Darlene Hildebrandt Darlene Hildebrandt has been a Tyndale author for thirty-seven years, and writes fiction and nonfiction, mysteries and biographies. She has coauthored books on parenting, including the best-selling My First Three Years series. An award-winning author and writing teacher, Darlene has been featured in Parenting and Christian Woman magazines. She has two children and lives with her husband on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. “We have never loved a book so much as the Bible itself. It would be quite as absurd to attempt to love the Bible as it is written without loving the Person who wrote it as He whom it reveals” (Frederick Brotherton Callender, Bible Facts and Their Significance). I know, I know, it’s hard to picture the great preacher Frederick Brotherton Callender as a “man of little faith”! But I think most people would agree that this book was the most meaningful in our family during the three years it was a required text for one of my Sunday school classes. Fred Callender is one of my heroes. He is considered to be one of the best Bible teachers in the history of Christian preaching. His writings on the Holy Spirit, in his classic book An Interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, are an inspiration to this day. In this book he writes about the Person who inspired it all: God Himself. Fred has a way of speaking from the heart, in that deep, resonating voice that so many of us have known from our childhood and from our parents. He takes us back to the earliest days of our faith, when God was calling prophets to go up on the hills to pray for their own nation, a nation that was headed for destruction. Of course we’ve all heard of Moses, but I learned so much about the great man Elisha, who led King Jehoshaphat’s army into battle when they faced overwhelming odds. The story of how God healed the captain of the band and Jehoshaphat’s servant is fascinating. I never thought that story would ever be found in a book of the Bible! Abraham is not the hero of this book, but his spiritual faithfulness to God is one of the most inspiring aspects of this story. Fred is a wonderful example of a man who knows that the purpose of man’s life is not to be great, but to be small and obedient to God. For Fred, this meant living each day in obedience to God’s call upon his life. What an inspiration! For more than 30 years, Charles (Chuck) Roper served in a variety of leadership positions within Tyndale Church. As President and CEO, he led a team of more than 180 who supported, guided, and challenged each other in ministry as they cared for people from the U.S., Israel, and parts of the world beyond. He was a gifted pastor who taught at Tyndale in seminary and at a number of colleges. Charles and his wife Jean married in 1958. She died in 1999. The couple had four children: Brad, Dan, Bruce, and Beth. His passion for the study of God’s Word, prayer, discipleship, and leadership enabled him to enjoy rich, abundant, rewarding relationships with a great many others. He was a gifted preacher, a seasoned counselor, and an example of a godly husband and father. He served as a board member for Christian Leadership Ministries and the Christian College Coalition. Chuck graduated from Tyndale University Seminary in December, 1988. Charles Roper at age 3 with his father, George Roper, Tyndale Church founder, (1899-1987). Charles Roper at age 5, second son in a family of five boys. Author Bio Darlene Hildebrandt Darlene Hildebrandt has been a Tyndale author for thirty-seven years, and writes fiction and nonfiction, mysteries and biographies. She has coauthored books on parenting, including the best-selling My First Three Years series. An award-winning author and writing teacher, Darlene has been featured in Parenting and Christian Woman magazines. She has two children and lives with her husband on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. “We have never loved a book so much as the Bible itself. It would be quite as absurd to attempt to love the Bible as it is written without loving the Person who wrote it as He whom it reveals” (Frederick Brotherton Callender, Bible Facts and Their Significance). I know, I know, it’s hard to picture the great preacher Frederick Brotherton Callender as a “man of little faith”! But I think most people would agree that this book was the most meaningful in our family during the three years it was a required text for one of my Sunday school classes. Fred Callender is one of my heroes. He is considered to be one of the best Bible teachers in the history of Christian preaching. His writings on the Holy Spirit, in his classic book An Interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, are an inspiration to this day. In this book he writes about the Person who inspired it all: God Himself.