The Art of Getting It Wrong: Finding Good in the Misadventures of Life

by Stephen Miller, Cole LaBrant (Foreword by)

Overview

Failures don't need to be final, and disappointment doesn't need to be defining. Come along on a wild, hilarious, faith-building ride, and let The Art of Getting It Wrong guide you toward hope for the future and the freedom to love your life exactly where you are.

Long before his You Tube channel, The Miller Fam, became a viral sensation, Stephen Miller got a ton of things wrong. He knows what it's like to endure countless failed endeavors, make too many rash decisions, and feel deep discouragement when life doesn't go as planned—sometimes all before breakfast. But those experiences taught him a powerful lesson: it's going to be okay.

With the characteristic authenticity, love, and humor Stephen shows in his You Tube videos, The Art of Getting It Wrong offers timeless truths and never-before-told stories of misadventures and out-of-control disappointments that will encourage you to:

• See the good at work in your life, even when you make mistakes
• Look for the laugh in every situation
• Embrace the truth—whether it's a warm hug or a kick in the teeth
• Believe in yourself and grow in your sense of self-worth
• Discover the power of grace, both for others and for yourself

Join Stephen as he shares what it means to turn failures, mishaps, and disappointments into a life of fun and fulfillment—even when it's not what you expected.

Praise for The Art of Getting It Wrong:

"With his trademark passion, humor, and optimism, Stephen Miller brings an important and timely message for us in The Art of Getting It Wrong. We all need a friend who can remind us that it's going to be okay, even when life's disappointments, failures, or deep hurts threaten to pull us down."

—Lysa Ter Keurst, #1 New York Times bestselling author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries

"If you find yourself trying to get back up after falling down, you'll find this book brimming with encouragement and buoyant with hope."

—Dr. Darren Whitehead, lead pastor, Church of the City, Nashville, Tennessee

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310364696
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	06/07/2022
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,042,102
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Stephen Miller is a creator and entrepreneur who has grown his platform to nearly one million followers in just two years through his show The Miller Fam, a channel that displays the beauty of diversity and adoption featuring his large, diverse, adoptive family of nine. No clickbait. No fake drama. Just a story that says, “Where grace guides, we'll go.” With over fifteen years of ministry in some of the nation's largest churches, Stephen has recorded six studio albums and is the author of Liberating King and Worship Leaders, We Are Not Rock Stars.

Table of Contents

Foreword (Cole LaBrant) xi

1 What's Up, Beautiful People? 1

2 The Art of the Epic Fail 11

3 Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, but Words Might Jack Me Up Forever 29

4 If You Keep Putting It Off, It's Just Gonna Suck More 47

5 There Are No Shortcuts! 59

6 Watch Your Blind Spots 77

7 The Bone Crusher 91

8 Life Moves Pretty Fast, and If You Don't Stop and Look Around, You Could Miss It! 103

9 Turns Out, You Can Get Chianti Pretty Much Anywhere! 117

10 That Time I Almost Died *Again*! 131

11 Getting Around the System 145

12 It's Okay to Be Wrong Sometimes 159

13 Trying Way Too Hard! 177

Final Thoughts: A Little More Grace 191

Afterword (Amanda Miller) 197

Acknowledgments 199

Notes 201

Editorial Reviews

05/02/2022

Miller (Liberating King), creator of the Miller Fam YouTube channel, shares advice on dealing with mistakes in this zippy account. “Your failures can feed your fears or seed your blessings. The choice is up to you,” Miller contends, using anecdotes from famous figures and his life as a Christian father of seven to encourage readers to embrace their blunders and love themselves. Noting that Walt Disney’s first animation studio flopped and that Thomas Edison failed 1,000 times before getting the light bulb right, Miller outlines “three tenets of the art of the epic fail”: “failure isn’t final,” “you aren’t your mistakes,” and “your failures don’t define you, but they can refine you.” The author tells readers “it’s gonna be okay if you have to rethink your position on a variety of subjects,” recounting how as a preteen he misread Genesis and, until his wife corrected him years later, believed that Adam and Eve didn’t have skin before the fall. Miller’s conversational style and pop culture references entertain (“There are very few sentences that come from my mouth that aren’t at least influenced by ’80s and ’90s movies,” he writes before quoting Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). Equal parts funny, cringy, and endearing, this animated work delivers. Agent: Tom Dean, A Drop of Ink. (June)

Publishers Weekly

As someone who has lots of experience 'getting it wrong,' this book provided encouragement and instruction on how to let our mishaps refine us instead of define us. Written in Stephen Miller's classic humor, we found ourselves delightfully challenged from start to finish. Andrew East and Shawn Johnson East, former National Football League player and Olympic gold gymnast/The East Fam

In his closing remarks in this book, Stephen Miller observes that 'the world tends to write our victories in the sand while etching our failures in concrete.' In our more honest moments, most of us must also admit that we do this very thing to ourselves. The negative verdicts that occupy our minds and hearts throughout the day about never measuring up, about being too much of 'this' or not enough of 'that,' can form us in such a way that the gremlins of regret, shame, and failure become our heart mentors. That's what makes books like The Art of Getting it Wrong, and transparent and serious writers like Stephen, so needed and helpful. Stephen effectively points us back to the reality that what is true for him is also true for us. It's all going to be okay, because God cannot stop loving us and has secured the greatest future for us. Scott Sauls, senior pastor, Christ Presbyterian Church, Nashville, Tennessee, and author of Beautiful People Don't Just Happen

In The Art of Getting It Wrong, Stephen Miller reminds us that we do not need to be defined by our worst moments. If you find yourself trying to get back up after falling down, you'll find this book brimming with encouragement and buoyant with hope. Dr. Darren Whitehead, lead pastor, Church of the City, Nashville, Tennessee

Open-hearted vulnerability. A real pleasure to read and a reminder of the best in all of us. I was encouraged and inspired. Thanks, Stephen! Leslie Odom Jr., two-time Academy Award nominee as Hamilton's Aaron Burr, and author of Failing Up

Through his faith, relatable movie quotes, and self-deprecating humor, Stephen Miller takes us on a journey through his life and shows us that we are not the sums of our mistakes; we are what we learn from them. The Art of Getting It Wrong is exactly the type of message this world needs today—a message that no matter how bad we may feel about failure, we are simply going to be okay. Excellent read! Shaun and Mindy Mc Knight, Cute Girls Hairstyles

We're so encouraged by Stephen's unabashed self-reflection and message that we aren't bound or defined by our failures. Our God is orchestrating a powerful story in us all. We all struggle with self-doubt and fear in the hard moments in life, and this book is like a warm hug! Adam and Danielle Busby, Out Daughtered on TLC and It's A Buzz World You Tube channel

With his trademark passion, humor, and optimism, Stephen Miller brings an important and timely message for us in The Art of Getting It Wrong. We all need a friend who can remind us that it's going to be okay, even when life's disappointments, failures, or deep hurts threaten to pull us down. It may not feel like it now, but it's going to be okay. Personally, I need this perspective more than ever. If you find yourself in this place too, you'll want to read this book! Lysa Ter Keurst, #1 New York Times bestselling author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries

From the Publisher