Melanie Shankle

Before God led David to fight Goliath, he sent him other challenging adversaries--specifically a lion and a bear--to prepare David for the big battle to come. In the same way, each challenge we face in life is preparation for the next, even if we'd much rather avoid conflict altogether, thank you very much.Whether it's mean girl culture, peer pressure, a difficult home life, physical or emotional challenges, or the constant barrage of social media slights, young women today have plenty of lions and bears to contend with. This 100-day devotional from The New York Times bestselling author Melanie Shankle and her college-age daughter Caroline is your guidebook for how to defeat those giants by trusting God one step at a time. Through Scripture, reflection, and prayer, Caroline helps you learn how to advocate for yourself, lead rather than follow, and develop the strength to never compromise on who God created you to be.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Nobody's Cuter than You comes a poignant, deeply personal story about trusting God to heal generational wounds so you can be a strong, loving presence for your teenage daughter. In medieval times, uncharted waters were marked on maps as Here Be Dragons to signify that no one knew what dangers might lie ahead. Melanie Shankle quips that the years spent raising our teenage daughters could be labeled the same due to the uncertainties before us. Like a lot of moms, Melanie found herself in need of a parenting map when her teenage daughter, Caroline, entered her sophomore year of high school where she encountered relentless mean girls and brutal heartache. While trying to equip her daughter to deal with the toxic social dynamics of high school, Melanie was hit with a cruel realization: The shame, criticism, and verbal abuse she had endured throughout her own life was wrought by one particular mean girl--her own mother. Melanie hoped to raise her daughter to be a warrior, and she realized she couldn't do that unless she became healthy enough to fight her own dragons. She invites you into her story as she explores her complex family dynamics, discovering what it takes for any of us to survive and ultimately thrive in spite of wounds that remain. This was the beginning of her journey of trusting God to help break generational cycles that had told the women in her family to find their value in everything but His love. Filled with personal stories and written in the same whimsical and honest style Melanie is known for, Here Be Dragons will have you both laughing out loud and crying--sometimes on the same page--as you confront the challenges of raising your own strong, independent daughter while fighting dragons along the way.

Big Mama blog founder and New York Times bestselling author Melanie Shankle helps us sort through our questions about being true to ourselves in a world gone crazy and what matters the most in the end.These days, so many voices tell us what to do, what to think, and what kind of parent or friend or spouse to be that it's easy to feel overwhelmed and defeated. Somewhere in the midst of online arguments and crazy politics and the ups and downs of life, we've lost sight of the gifts that are all around us: kindness, love, mercy, and joy.In On the Bright Side, Melanie Shankle reminds us of the unchanging principles we can count on in a changing world. These are lessons that Melanie has learned along the way about how to find all the joy that life has to offer--and why encouragement is never something to keep to ourselves.Melanie invites us to lead with love in all areas of our lives, exploring topics such as:Finding your peopleGiving up on comparing and competingAging (kind of) gracefullyBelieving in ever afterStaying mostly sane while raising kidsThinking before speakingMaking decisionsAnd more!This delightful memoir highlights the joys of life told in Melanie's down to earth, relatable, and totally enjoyable style. On the Bright Side is a how-to guide to knowing--and living--what matters most.

If you are a dog lover, you will enjoy New York Times bestselling author Melanie Shankle’s debut children’s book, Piper & Mabel. Melanie shares the adventures of her two very wild but very good dogs, Piper and Mabel, who have an experience of their own when their owners plan a vacation to the beach. The dog duo is shocked to discover they won’t be joining their people on the trip. Instead, they’re headed to doggie day care at the Happy Trails Ranch, where they create all kinds of mischief when they discover the accommodations are not exactly what they were expecting. And when they decide to take matters into their own paws, they end up on one crazy journey.Humorous story, perfect for children ages 4-8If your kids loved Secret Life of Pets, they’ll enjoy reading about Piper and MabelShankle is the author of four books, co-hosts The Big Boo Cast and is the hilarious voice behind the popular Big Mama Blog.

In It's All About the Small Things—formerly titled Church of the Small Things—Melanie Shankle helps you embrace what it means to live a simple, yet incredibly meaningful life and how to find all the beauty and laughter that lies right beneath the surface of every ordinary, incredible day.Also features bullet journaling pages and exclusive lists of the small things that bring Melanie joy, including her favorite TV shows and movies to fashion must-haves and more!Is my ordinary, everyday life actually significant? Is it okay to be fulfilled by the simple acts of raising kids, working in an office, and cooking chicken for dinner?It's been said, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away." The pressure of that can be staggering as we spend our days looking for that big thing that promises to take our breath away. Meanwhile, we lose sight of the small significance of fully living with every breath we take.Melanie Shankle, New York Times bestselling author and writer at The Big Mama Blog tackles these questions head on. Easygoing and relatable, she speaks directly to the heart of women of all ages who are longing to find significance and meaning in the normal, sometimes mundane world of driving carpool to soccer practice, attending class on their college campus, cooking meals for their family, or taking care of a sick loved one.The million little pieces that make a life aren't necessarily glamorous or far-reaching. But God uses some of the smallest, most ordinary acts of faithfulness--and sometimes they look a whole lot like packing lunch.

Is it possible to pursue your passions, love your family, and not feel guilty about wanting to do both? One Beautiful Dream is your invitation to the unexpected joy of saying yes to the life you long to live.Work and family, individuality and motherhood, the creative life and family life—women are told constantly that they can’t have it all. One Beautiful Dream is the deeply personal, often humorous tale of what happened when one woman dared to believe that you can have it all—if you’re willing to reimagine what having it all looks like. Jennifer Fulwiler is the last person you might expect to be the mother of six young children. First of all, she’s an introvert only child, self-described workaholic, and former atheist who never intended to have a family. Oh, and Jennifer has a blood-clotting disorder exacerbated by pregnancy that has threatened her life on more than one occasion.One Beautiful Dream is the story of what happens when one woman embarks on the wild experiment of chasing her dreams with multiple kids in diapers. It’s the tale of learning that opening your life to others means that everything will get noisy and chaotic, but that it is in this mess that you’ll find real joy.Jennifer’s quest takes her in search of wisdom from a cast of colorful characters, including her Ivy-League-educated husband, her Texan mother-in-law who crushes wasps with her fist while arguing with wrong number calls about politics, and a best friend who’s never afraid to tell it like it is. Through it all, Jennifer moves toward the realization that the life you need is not the life you would have originally chosen for yourself. And maybe, just maybe, it’s better that way.Hilarious, highly relatable, and brutally honest, Jennifer’s story will spark clarity and comfort to your own tug-of-war between all that is good and beautiful about family life and the incredible sacrifice it entails. Parenthood, personal ambitions, family planning, and faith—it’s complicated. Let this book be your invitation to the unexpected, yet beautiful dream of saying yes to them all, with God’s help.

It’s easy to feel disheartened when you’re facing dreams that haven’t come true, heartbreak that never seems to end, or financial strains that weigh you down. Maybe you’re wondering if God can still use you with all your imperfections. In the 100 devotions in Everyday Holy, New York Times bestselling author and creator of The Big Mama Blog Melanie Shankle says absolutely yes. If you’re looking for the line that connects the dots, Everyday Holy is for you! Inside, Melanie reminds readers:God uses unlikely, ordinary people to accomplish His divine purposes.God specializes in using everyday acts of faithfulness to change the world around us.God has incomparable spiritual riches for us when we trust in Him.This keepsake devotional includes:A winsome cover and a resourceful ribbon marker.100 devotions, each with a Scripture and inspirational story.Everyday Holy makes a beautiful gift for any friend or loved one for birthdays, Mother’s Day, or the holidays. Or, curl up with it yourself when you want a reminder that the hope you’ve been called to is much greater, deeper, and more powerful than anything we can fathom when we trust in Him.

In Church of the Small Things, New York Times bestselling author Melanie Shankle celebrates, with her trademark stories and humor, the wonder of the many small moments in life that add up to make a big difference and ultimately shape the person we become.

There is nothing as precious in life as a friend who knows you and loves you in spite of yourself. Yet over the last couple of decades, we've substituted the joy of real friendship with cheap imitations. We settle for "community" on Facebook and Twitter and a series of text messages that allow us to communicate with someone without the commitment. We like each other's beautifully filtered photos on Instagram and delude ourselves into believing we have a community. But real friendship requires effort. It's showing up, laughing loud, and crying hard. It's forgiving and loving and giving the benefit of the doubt. It's making a casserole, doing a carpool pickup, and making sure she knows those cute shoes are 50 percent off. Written in the same comedic style as the New York Times bestsellers Sparkly Green Earrings and The Antelope in the Living Room, Nobody's Cuter than You is a laugh-out-loud look at the special bond that exists between friends and a poignant celebration of all the extraordinary people God had the good sense to bring into our lives at exactly the right moments. From the friendships we develop over a lifetime to the ones that wounded us and the ones that taught us to love better, Melanie Shankle reveals the influence our friends have on who we were, who we are, and who we will become. And on a day when our jeans feel too tight, our chins have decided to embrace hormone-related acne reminiscent of our teen years, and our kids have tested the limits of our sanity, they are the ones who will look at us and say, "Nobody's cuter than you "

"There is really no better indicator you're a mother than acquiring the ability to catch throw-up in a plastic bag, disinfect your hands, and immediately ask your friend to pass the beef jerky as you put on another Taylor Swift song and act as if nothing has happened."This is the type of insight Melanie Shankle offers in this quirky memoir of motherhood.Written in the familiar, stream-of-consciousness style of her blog, Big Mama, "Sparkly Green Earrings" is a heartwarming and hilarious look at motherhood from someone who is still trying to figure it all out. Filled with personal stories--from the decision to become a mother to the heartbreak of miscarriage and ultimately, to the joy of raising a baby and living to tell about it--"Sparkly Green Earrings" will make you feel like you're sitting across the table from your best friend. A must-read for anyone who's ever had a child or even thought about it.