Lori Wildenberg - Messy Parenting: Powerful and Practical Ways to Strengthen Family Connections

This is the kind of book you will want to read over and over as you approach each new season of raising kids.

Mandy Arioto, president and CEO, MOPS International

Without question, Messy Parenting is one of the best parenting books ever. Seriously. I laughed. I cried. I fist-pumped on a regular basis while reading this fantastic book. Lori brings wisdom, wit, and wonder to every parenting scenario.

Kurt W. Bubna, pastor and author

Do you want to interact with your kids in a way that deepens your relationship, encourages responsibility, draws grace into the family fold, and molds a humble countenance? Then devour these pages now. Family connections matter to everyone now and into the future. Theyre worth the investment. Lori will show you how.

Dr. Kathy Koch, founder and president of Celebrate Kids Inc. and
the author of 8 Great Smarts and Screens and Teens

There is no underlying message of: If you had just tried harder, you would have amazing kids! No. This book, with every shred of Loris wisdom and grace wrapped up inside, gives you real-life, loving strategies to strengthen the family you have, no matter where you are starting from today.

Kathi Lipp, bestselling author of The Husband Project, Overwhelmed, and Clutter Free

Crud happens. Heartbreaks and hassles are an inevitable hazard of family life. Parents need a plan for seeing the big picture, and Messy Parenting delivers that plan.

Jay Payleitner, national speaker and best-selling author of 52 Things Kids Need
from a Dad and What If God Wrote Your Bucket List?

Messy Parenting is not only a powerful parenting book, but its a grace-filled, common sense manual for life.

Mary DeMuth, author of Building the Christian Family You Never Had

Messy Parenting encourages, challenges, and equips parents to intentionally develop a family culture of loving interdependence in order to raise respectful, responsible children who receive and give the grace-filled truth that everybody spills.

cohosts of the Grit n Grace podcast, Amy Carroll, Proverbs 31 Ministries speaker
and author of Breaking Up with Perfect, and Cheri Gregory, author of Overwhelmed

Lori Wildenberg offers practical ways to connect with your children, grow them in godliness, and steer them from isolated independence toward unified interdependence and lifelong relationships with one another. Treasure her help on your parenting journey, regardless of your childrens ages.

Cindi McMenamin, national speaker and award-winning author of When Women
Walk Alone, Drama Free, When a Mom Inspires Her Daughter, and
10 Secrets to Becoming a Worry-Free Mom

Messy Parenting, perfectly describes every parents journeymessy! Life gets messy and days get long and hard. Thank you, Lori, for stepping out in faith to bring wisdom to all the mothers of the world. We needed to know we werent in this thing alone!

Jennifer Maggio, chief executive officer, The Life of a Single Mom ministries

Loris book is full of encouragement to never lose hope, always pursue the hearts of your children, and no matter whatkeep your eyes on Jesus!

Dr. Rob Rienow, Visionary Family Ministries

Life is messy and complicated. The challenges facing our children are diverse and daunting. What we desperately need today is connection and commitment to relationships in the family. Messy Parenting brings this timely message to us.

Ed Miller, director of development, National Center for Biblical Parenting

Life is better when family relationships are close, and Lori is a trusted guide to walk with you on that journey.

Josh Mulvihill, PhD, executive director of church and family ministry at
Renewanation and founder of GospelShapedFamily.com

We all have messes in our lives. Messy Parenting is written with you and me in mind. It is filled with practical insights but, more importantly, biblical wisdom that will allow God to turn our messes into miracles.

Cavin Harper, founder and president, Christian Grandparenting Network

M E S S Y

parenting

Powerful and Practical Ways to
Strengthen Family Connections

by
LORI WILDENBERG

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
AN IMPRINT OF IRON STREAM MEDIA

Other New Hope books by Lori Wildenberg
Messy Journey: How Grace and Truth Offer
the Prodigal a Way Home

New Hope Publishers

5184 Caldwell Mill Rd.

St. 204-221

Hoover, AL 35244

NewHopePublishers.com

An imprint of Iron Stream Media

2018 by Lori Wildenberg

All rights reserved. First printing 2018.

Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the publisher.

New Hope Publishers serves its authors as they express their views, which may not express the views of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Wildenberg, Lori, author.

Title: Messy parenting : powerful and practical ways to strengthen family connections / Lori Wildenberg.

Description: Birmingham, Alabama : New Hope Publishers, an imprint of Iron Stream Media, [2018] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018028518| ISBN 9781563090417 (permabind) | ISBN 9781563090547 (Ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Parent and childReligious aspectsChristianity. | FamiliesReligious aspectsChristianity. | Child rearingReligious aspectsChristianity. | ParentingReligious aspectsChristianity.

Classification: LCC BV4529 .W5543 2018 | DDC 248.8/45dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018028518

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 (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission.

ISBN-13: 978-1-56309-041-7

Printed in the United States.

1 2 3 4 522 21 20 19 18

This book is dedicated to
all parents who hope
for a relationship with their kids
that reaches beyond the
home and stretches into eternity.

Love endures forever,

Lori

Acknowledgments

With a heart filled with love and affection, I want to express my gratitude to my supportive, encouraging, and ever-growing family: my hubby Tom, my kids, Courtney, Jake, Samantha, and Kendra, along with my daughter-in-love Jaime and our sweet Sarah. I love it that we do life together.

To two encouraging and wise women who show me how its done: my mom Pat Appel and mother-in-love Marianne Wildenberg Schmitt. I am grateful for your example.

To my steadfast friends, thank you for sharing your love and life with my family and me. You are there to cheer us on or ready to help us up: Julianne Adams, Shelley Appel, Maureen Behrens, Vicki Brock, Keri Buisman, Paula Calabrese, Becky Clark, Becky Danielson, Suanne Deskin, Jill Gillis, Paula Gleason, Gayle Hendrickson, Nina Hinds, Peggy Holland, Katie McElroy, Amy Raye, Darcy Robertson, Lindee Sebald, Stacey Van Horn, Kathy Wolfe, Elsa Wolff, Wendy Zueli, and Lucille Zimmerman.