The Painful Path of the Prodigal: Biblical Help and Hope for Those who Love the Wayward and Rebellious

Book Description:

Parents of prodigals struggle deeply with the challenges they face of relating to their wayward offspring. Siblings, spouses, and children of prodigals face similar struggles. How do you live for Christ in the midst of such personal turmoil? How do you live with a grown child whose destructive choices have turned him into a person so much unlike the adorable offspring into whom you poured much of yourself? Ultimately, how do you bear the pain if that prodigal never returns?

In this book, Dr. Craig Svensson and his wife, Sue, show how they are no strangers to such deeply devastating circumstances. Svensson sensitively, engagingly, and compassionately directs readers to Scripture as he helps create the biblical framework for addressing the trauma of having a prodigal in the family.

Table of Contents:
1. The End of the Journey
2. Living with the Judgment of Others
3. Embracing Forgiveness
4. Letting Them Bear the Consequences
5. Facing the Hard Reality
6. Understanding Why
7. Dealing with False Professions
8. Battling Anger and Bitterness
9. Kindling Affection for Your Prodigal
10. Being Content with the Sovereign Choices of God
11. Living with the Silence of Heaven
12. Keeping Your Hope in Heaven
13. Living with Sadness
14. Testing the Sufficiency of His Grace
15. A Final Word

Author:

Dr. Craig K. Svensson and Sue, his wife of over thirty-five years, have walked the difficult journey of parenting a prodigal who died after a fifteen-year descent into drug abuse and its attendant destructive lifestyle. Craig has served as a Bible teacher, interim preacher, a seminary board chair, a mission agency board chair, and as a visiting lecturer at the Bryansk Bible Institute and Seminary in Russia. He has worked with Sue as they have directed the ministry of their church to the homeless in their community since 2008. They live in West LaFayette, Indiana, where they serve with Faith Church. Craig is a pharmacist-scientist who has served as a university professor and administrator.

Endorsements:

"Craig Svensson has written a very moving and very needed book with a unique perspective for parents of prodigal children. While clearly hope-giving, this book is also filled with biblical candor and lament, as well as wisdom-for-parenting-life."
--Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., VP/Academic Dean at Faith Bible Seminary, Lafayette, Indiana

"For pastors, counselors, mentors, and friends of the parents of prodigals, Dr. Svensson's work should be the first resource they read to provide the most helpful guidance during this life-consuming trial."
--Brent Aucoin, Ph.D., Pastor of Seminary and Soul Care Ministries, Faith Church, Lafayette, Indiana

Additional Information: