"Before You Leave Home"

Are your children ready for the world?

A book to prepare your kids for a great life on their own.

"★★★★★"

"The section on Financial Challenges alone is worth picking up this book."

"This book is EXCELLENT!"

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Our Story

We’re David & Bernice Gudgel. Life has thrown a lot of big decisions at us. Maybe you can relate. Along the way – through good & bad experiences, the wisdom of others, and lots of prayer – we’ve learned lessons that we wish we would have known before. Now, we hope to help you make the best big decisions in life.

Bernice has a degree in Psychology and has focused much of her adult life on raising three kids (who turned out great!) and leading ministries in the church. Dave is a pastor who has a degree in Sociology, an M Div, and a D Min. He’s counseled over a thousand clients and hosted a weekday radio program.

Our Books

Before You Get Engaged
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Before You Live together
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Before You Leave Home
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Bible Storyboards
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Owner's Guide to Using Your Bible
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Where Death and Hope Meet
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Blog

A New Resource for Couples Who Are Thinking About Getting Married

March 15, 2017

Getting married is one of the most important decisions a person will make in their life. And while there are a lot of resources available to help engaged couples prepare for marriage, there is very little to help them know if they have actually found the right person and if they are both ready to get engaged and married. That’s why a while ago I wrote the book Before You Get Engaged. It’s a resource individuals and couples are using – before they get engaged – to help them know if they have found the right person and are ready

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Weighed Down by the Worries of this World

What Do We Do When Life Is Out of Control?

January 26, 2017

What do you do when your plan isn’t working out? When things aren’t going the way you want them to. When what’s happening in and around your life just seems wrong.  We’ll all face times like that, whether they’re related to our personal lives, our families, our jobs… or even our country. If you are a follower of Christ, there are certain truths that we can cling to during hard times. When the world seems to be out of control around us, we can hold on to these truths and find peace and comfort and hope. God is in control

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Hope When You Need it Most

Where Death and Hope Meet During the Holidays

November 30, 2016

If you recently went through the death of a loved one, the holidays can be a very painful time. So many things that you used to greet with joy and laughter can now become an overload of reminders that there is someone missing. One woman said “I wish I could go to sleep the day before Thanksgiving and wake up January 2.” It’s not easy to deal with the grief and sorrow and loss that come when someone we love dies. Even Jesus wept after the death of his friend, Lazarus. We Need Hope Over the past two years, both

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A Thanksgiving Feast

Giving Thanks in the Midst of a Fallen World

November 23, 2016

With all the crazy that’s going on in this country right now, I’m especially thankful for Thanksgiving this year. To have a day set aside to simply focus on all the people and things in our lives that we are thankful for is awesome, and much needed. As I was doing my Thanksgiving Dinner grocery shopping yesterday, I was overcome with gratitude for the simple fact that I have the ability to walk through a store and buy whatever food I might need … or even just want. For most people in the world, that is not their reality. I

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Others Need Your Prayers

Three Prayers We Should Be Praying for Those We Love

October 26, 2016

Almost 2,000 years ago Paul traveled around telling people the amazing story of what God had just done for them through Jesus. As people listened and believed, a community of Christ-followers was born in the cities he visited. Though he longed to be with these people he had grown to love, Paul was not able to stay in any of these cities for very long due to God leading Him to other cities and to his times in prison. But while he was away from them, he continued to pray for them. In his first letter to the “church” in

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Family Selfie

A Simple Checklist for Moms & Dads

October 7, 2016

There are a number of passages in the Bible that help us understand what it means to be a good parent to our children. I Thessalonians gives us four things worth considering as we evaluate how we’re doing as moms and dads.

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