Healing Family Relationships

Rob Rienow

Description

Every family is hurting, and the wounds that come from our relatives can be deeper than all others. Conflict within a family can range from daily frictions and annoyances to rage and hatred and eventually estrangement. We want things to be different but have no idea where to start.After 25 years of ministering to families, Rob Rienow believes reconciliation is at the heart of the gospel--reconciliation with God and one another. You will come away with specific steps you can take in your relationships with your family members to pursue peace and healing in your homes. Each chapter includes key biblical examples as well as present-day stories of families who have experienced God's help and healing--including the author's own miraculous healing of his relationship with his father.Our families can bring out the best, as well as the worst, in all of us. May this book guide you in making your home and family a blessing in a broken world.

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 16 juin 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493424900
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Praise for Healing Family Relationships
“All families are messy and, at times, broken. All families need healing. Rob Rienow writes with such authenticity and knowledge as to be a sort of spiritual mentor to help you find that healing with your family relationships. There is not a family in the universe who would not benefit from this book. It’s hope filled, biblical, and practical.”
—Jim Burns, PhD, president, HomeWord; author of Doing Life with Your Adult Children: Keep Your Mouth Shut & the Welcome Mat Out and The Purity Code
“Are you struggling to maintain strong, healthy bonds with your family members? We’ve all found ourselves at odds with loved ones from time to time, but Rob Rienow’s latest book will show you how to experience healing in your most important relationships this side of heaven.”
—Jim Daly, president, Focus on the Family
“Anything Rob Rienow writes is worth reading. In my opinion, no one is better at applying God’s Word to the complexities of marriage and family and multigenerational faithfulness than Rob. Read Healing Family Relationships and be equipped and inspired and challenged to love God and family like never before.”
—Troy Dobbs, senior pastor, Grace Church of Eden Prairie
“Have you reached a dead end in trying to heal broken relationships in your family? Rob Rienow will provide you with a whole host of new strategies that are biblical and practical. His personal transparency is exemplary, and his wisdom is biblical. This is simply the best book I’ve ever read on the topic!”
—Larry Fowler, founder, the Legacy Coalition
“Rob Rienow understands what it means, theologically and practically, to foster healing in family relationships. This book is a treasure trove for parents and grandparents hoping to cultivate healing, grace, and peace during seasons of familial brokenness, sin, and spiritual warfare.”
—Dr. Brian Haynes, lead pastor, Bay Area Church and Christian School
“Nobody is exempt from the hurts and wounds that come from being part of a family—even a loving family. They’re inevitable. But not everyone rises above the pain to build better relationships. Why? It’s tough. Thankfully, Rob Rienow has provided a biblically based path for doing just that in Healing Family Relationships . Don’t miss out on this life-transforming message.”
—Drs. Les & Leslie Parrott, #1 New York Times bestselling authors of Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts
“Rob begins this remarkable book with the comforting assurance that messy families are normal. Then with transparency and wisdom, he offers a sensible, biblical blueprint for restoration, healing, and hope. No matter how dysfunctional your family might be, this book will help you strengthen relationships with the people you love most.”
—Wayne Rice, cofounder of Youth Specialties, conference director of the Legacy Coalition
“Minutes after reading Healing Family Relationships , I ordered copies to give to people I care about. And right after that, I made the book required reading in my seminary course on the family. I cannot give a stronger endorsement than those two actions. This is an important book.”
—Richard Ross, PhD, professor of student ministry, Southwestern Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas
“Only God can heal broken family relationships. In this very personal, touching book, Rob shows us how to position ourselves well while we wait for that healing. And if God chooses not to heal the relationship, this book opens pathways for God to heal us.”
—Dr. Scott Turansky, cofounder, National Center for Biblical Parenting
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2020 by Robert Rienow
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-2490-0
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016
Scripture quotations identified KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations identified NIV are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations identified NIV 1984 are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations identified NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Stories are shared with permission, and names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.
Cover design by Darren Welch Design
Dedication
To John Diehl, my brother-in-law, who is home in heaven with Jesus. Thank you, John, for being a person of peace.
Contents
Cover 1
Praise for Healing Family Relationships 2
Half Title Page 3
Title Page 5
Copyright Page 6
Dedication 7
Acknowledgments 11
Introduction: Every Family Is Hurting 13
1. The Power of Forgiveness 17
2. Healing through Prayer 28
3. Healing through Repentance 42
4. Healing through Listening 57
5. Healing through Acceptance 67
6. Healing through Spiritual Warfare 77
7. Healing through Boundaries 92
8. Healing through Compassion 108
9. Healing through Patience 118
10. Healing through Mediators 133
11. Healing through Mercy 150
12. Healing through the Generations 161
13. A Family Miracle 170
Conclusion: Reconciliation with God 179
Notes 188
About the Author 191
Back Cover 193
Acknowledgments
A special thanks to my wife, Amy, most importantly for always seeking healing and reconciliation with me in and through our conflicts, but also for helping me improve every aspect of this book. Thanks also to my mother and stepfather, Angie and Jack, for their labor of love in proofreading. I am thankful that this book on family relationships has been a family project.
Introduction
Every Family Is Hurting
Every family experiences conflict, hurt, and brokenness. There are two big reasons for this reality. First, each of us struggles with sin and character problems. When multiple people with character problems live together under the same roof, you get lots of problems! Second, God created the family as the foundation of all human life and society. Satan and his demons understand this, so a tremendous amount of their firepower is directed toward breaking the relationships between spouses, parents and children, and brothers and sisters.
I believe you picked up this book because you desire healing in one of your family relationships—or perhaps for your entire family tree. There is good news! God loves your family. He intentionally put the members of your family together. He has the power to use the joys and the sorrows of your family’s journey to draw you closer to Him and to one another. In the pages ahead you will not find pat answers or quick fixes. However, you will find encouragement, hope, and principles from the Bible that will give you practical steps toward healing broken relationships in your family and experiencing more peace in your home.
We need God’s power every day in the Rienow home. Amy and I have been married since 1994, and we have been blessed with seven children. That adds up to nine sinful people living under the same roof! Let’s run the math on that for a moment. There are thirty-six relationships in our house. I have a unique relationship with eight people—my wife and seven kids. My wife has a unique relationship with seven people, as her relationship with me is counted in my list. When you add it all up, there are thirty-six individual relationships. Do you know what that means? Not a single day goes by where we don’t have problems, conflicts, and blowups of one kind or another. We are in daily need of mercy, grace, and forgiveness.
The struggles within our homes are compounded by challenging relationships with parents, in-laws, and extended family. Not only do we have the problems and hurts of today, but many families are feeling the consequences of past wounds and generational brokenness.
I was not born into what anyone would call a healthy family tree. My mother was my father’s fourth wife. My father was my mother’s second husband. Neither of them knew the Lord when I was born. When I was fifteen years old, my parents divorced due in large part to my father’s infidelity. Even through all this sadness and brokenness, God’s healing power has been at work. The Lord brought my mother, and later my father, to faith in Jesus. He has blessed Amy and me through all the joys and struggles of our marriage relationship and is now using us to raise the next generation to follow Him.
God is in the business of taking broken things and making them whole. He loves to bring joy out of ashes. It is not too late for my family, and it is not too late for yours. Through Christ we can be reconciled with God and reconciled with one another. Reconciliation, however, is not a passive process. Many times, while we are struggling with family conflicts and dysfunction, we rightly desire for things to be better, and yet we are not taking intentional and active steps toward healing. It takes more than good intention