The Mother and Daughter relationship isn’t always an easy one. I have experienced this first hand with my mother and from friends who are struggling with their daughters. Tensions can arise especially in the teen years that can make the mother/daughter relationship difficult. This week on By His Grace we talk about the mother-daughter relationship, challenges, and how it can be repaired by God’s grace.
My guests this week are the mother and daughter author team Helen McIntosh and Blythe Daniel that penned the book, Mended: Restoring the Hearts of Mothers and Daughters. They share wisdom and hope based on their own experiences as mothers and daughters.
Growing up, Dr. Helen McIntosh shared few loving moments with her mother. Her mother battled anxiety, anger, and alcoholism, while Helen struggled to fend off her verbal and emotional abuse. After Helen became a Doctor of Counseling Psychology, she helped other women scarred from toxic mother-daughter relationships. Once her own daughter Blythe grew up and left home, Helen longed to maintain a good relationship with her.  
Today, Helen and Blythe, who is a mother of two daughters, have a close and healthy mother-daughter bond achieved through effort and repairs. In Mended: Restoring the Hearts of Mothers and Daughters, they share how they’ve built, guarded, and renewed a relationship-centered around talking, respecting, and listening. “No mom or daughter wants to walk a dark path of uncertainty, a strained relationship, or a gulf between you that feels too difficult for you to cross,” says Blythe, knowing how common unstable and unfinished relationships are. Mended walks readers through the steps to reconciliation and includes specific conversations that guide mothers and daughters towards openness, grace-filled confrontation, and restoration. 
 Blythe Daniel is a literary agent and marketer with 20 plus years of experience in publishing. She has written for Christian Retailing and Focus on the Family, and she links bloggers with readers through BlogAbout. The daughter of Dr. Helen McIntosh, she lives in Colorado with her husband and three children.
Dr. Helen McIntosh (EdD, Counseling Psychology) is a counselor, speaker, educator, and author of Messages to Myself and Eric, Jose & The Peace Rug®. Her work has appeared in Guideposts, ParentLife, and HomeLife magazines. She resides in Georgia with her husband Jim. They have two children and five grandchildren.