Dave Wilson - No Perfect Parents: Ditch Expectations, Embrace Reality, and Discover the One Secret That Will Change Your Parenting

Dave and Ann Wilson are some of our favorite people in the world, and they have been so encouraging and helpful to us in our parenting journey. Now, with this amazing book, you will understand why. They are wise, insightful, funny, and very, very real. They dont pretend to have it all together. But what they do have is a deep well of insight and experience that will make a huge difference in your parenting journeyjust as they have in ours.

SHAUNTI AND JEFF FELDHAHN, social researchers
and authors of For Women Only and For Men Only

When someone has traveled the road you now travel on, they just may be able to help you avoid some of the potholes. Dave and Ann Wilson dont claim to know it all, but when it comes to parenting, they do know the true source of wisdom and how to attain it. Wherever you are on the parenting journey, No Perfect Parents will help you leave a positive legacy.

GARY CHAPMAN, PhD, author of The 5 Love Languages

With their characteristic wit, wisdom, and humility, Dave and Ann Wilson reflect on decades of experience raising their own children to give parents time-tested advice and perspective. This is a fun, convicting, enjoyable, and encouraging read for all parents through all stages of parenting.

GARY THOMAS, author of Sacred Marriage
and Sacred Parenting

Heres the raw, refreshing, honest look at parenting youve been hoping for. Real help from a couple who knows what youre dealing with and how to point you in the right direction as you raise your children. You will love this book.

BOB LEPINE, cohost, FamilyLife Today

Marriage takes work. We are so grateful we met Dave and Ann Wilson in our early years of marriage while we were still teachable. The Wilsons know marriage, and now theyre helping with parenting! With seven kiddos, we are blessed to know them and have this book!

BENJAMIN AND KIRSTEN WATSON, sixteen-year
NFL tight end and founders of thewatsonseven.com

ZONDERVAN BOOKS

No Perfect Parents

Copyright 2021 by Dave and Ann Wilson

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Zondervan titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email SpecialMarkets@Zondervan.com.

ISBN 978-0-310-36224-1 (audio)

Epub Edition February 2021 9780310362234

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Wilson, Dave, 1957 October 15- author. | Wilson, Ann, 1960- author.

Title: No perfect parents : ditch expectations, embrace reality, and discover the one secret that will change your parenting / Dave Wilson and Ann Wilson, with John Driver.

Description: Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: Raising kids with hearts for Christ is a challenge, but it's a challenge you can do. National hosts of FamilyLife Today, Dave and Ann Wilson present No Perfect Parents, a funny and engaging dialogue between their whole family with helpful applications and biblical encouragement for any parenting stageProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020048214 (print) | LCCN 2020048215 (ebook) | ISBN 9780310362173 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780310362234 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: ParentingReligious aspectsChristianity. | Child rearingReligious aspectsChristianity.

Classification: LCC BV4529 .W579 2021 (print) | LCC BV4529 (ebook) | DDC 248.8/45dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020048214

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020048215

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc. Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version). Copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Any internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth & Associates, Inc.

Cover design: Curt Diepenhorst

Cover illustration: Ieremy | Getty Images

Interior design: Kait Lamphere

Printed in the United States of America

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Please note that the footnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication

Since this is a parenting book,
we thought it would be best
to dedicate this to our amazing parents
(all of whom are deceased except for Anns dad)
and our growing number of grandkids.

To Dick and Toot (Anns parents) and
Dave and Janiece (Daves parents).
And to Olive, Porter, Holden, Bryce, Ryder, Autumn...
and more to come.
May you know Gods love and make him known.

T here I (Dave) wasexactly where I would spend many Sunday afternoons for the next three decades of my life: on the sidelines of the Silverdome. The stadium was nestled in Pontiac, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit about twenty miles northwest of the Motor City. After I had finished my graduate degree in theology in California, my wife, Ann, and I had just recently moved to the Detroit area, where I took a job as chaplain for the Detroit Lionsit was a dream come true.

We had only been married for six years and were beyond excited to make the move to Detroit so we could begin this new chapter in our young lives together. It was thrilling, to say the least, but I had no idea just how exhilarating it was about to become.

This wasnt a Sunday afternoon game. This was Monday Night Football. The whole world was watching in prime time as we battled one of the best teams in NFL history: the Chicago Bears. This was 1986, so the Bears were coming off a momentous season the year before that had ended with a Super Bowl trophy hoisted in their locker room. Some of you may remember the Super Bowl Shuffleif not, look it up on YouTube and prepare to be amazed, by the fashion as much as anything else. This was the team that featured Jim McMahon, Walter Payton, and William Refrigerator Perry, and the head coach Mike Ditka. Needless to say, they were pretty good.