Book Review: Encouragement in the Waiting

Parenting a prodigal can be daunting. Plus, it often feels as if the trial will never end. You wait and wait for your son or daughter to turn from their bad choices and their ruinous paths. The only thing that keeps me going is scripture and prayer. Thus, I valued the heavy emphasis on those two weapons in Tami Winkelman's newest book, Encouragement in the Waiting (For Your Prodigal to Return to God).

With bite-sized doses of encouragement, jam-packed with fortifying scripture passages, Winkelman reminds parents to never give up. I appreciated her observations. Guilt over less-than-productive parenting often cripples us. Yet, God placed our prodigals in our families for a purpose and knew full well our weaknesses and short-comings. We will never be enough for the task, but God always is! I loved her reminder to use prayer as a first line of defense. In the middle of the book, she offers a valuable list of suggested prayers of blessings to speak over your prodigal. She counters common lies of the enemy and emphasizes the powerful weapon of praise. If you are discouraged in what seems an unending battle, this book will strengthen your resolve in your retaliation against the enemy. Or check out Tami's previous book, Fighting for Your Prodigal Through Prayer: 365 Promises, Praises, and Prayers.