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

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.

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. Find out more at www.craigsvensson.com.