As every parent from the beginning of time has discovered, kids don’ t come with a manual. Parenting is a learning journey from beginning to end, and like all learning journeys, it is full of lessons, challenges, questions, tests, mistakes, and messes. But what matters most on the journey of parenting is that we lock on to the right goal. One of the biggest reasons so many of us get scared, discouraged, frustrated, and overwhelmed as parents is that we think the goal of parenting is to be perfect parents who raise perfect children. This leads us to adopt fear-driven strategies that focus on avoiding and preventing mistakes and messes and using control and punishment to elicit desired behavior. In Imperfect Parenting, Brittney Serpell lays out the case for the true goal of parenting: a safe, loving, heart-to-heart connection with our kids. Pursuing the goal of connection is what sets us up to influence the hearts, minds, and behavior of our children as we guide them on their own learning journey to become healthy, confident, emotionally intelligent, and strong in character. Filled with relatable stories and real-life examples, solid biblical teaching, and tested parenting an
