Indifference says you are not a person to love, but an object to use.

From Christ’s perspective, success isn’t measured by how much we do, how much we earn, or how much we have, but by how well we love and what kind of person we’re becoming in the midst of life’s activities.

Many of us, like Sandra, are under the impression “that if we don’t feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different, namely, that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting.”5 Choosing to act right when you don’t feel like it isn’t hypocrisy; it’s obedience.

Is biblical headship synonymous with taking control over someone else and forcing her to comply when she resists? And, does biblical submission require a wife to always do what her husband says? Does it mean she has no choices of her own or can’t ever say no without being labeled as rebellious or ungodly?

Dear God, This is so scary, but it’s also freeing. For the first time I see your plan for healing broken relationships. I need to do the right thing, and it’s not to close my eyes and stay silent. It’s to confront him. But I need your help. I’m afraid it won’t go well and I will have to implement a consequence. Help me be strong.

Maybe you think that God is more interested in preserving your marriage than the well-being of you and your children, but that is not true.

He needs a wife who will love him enough to tell him the truth and to respectfully challenge his selfishness, his self-absorption, and his self-deception.

Instead of hungering after God, we’ve feasted at the table of cheap substitutes. No wonder we are left still hungry and longing for more.

Marriage and family are important to God, but just as important to him are the individuals within those marriages and families.

Emotional abuse systematically degrades, diminishes, and can eventually destroy the personhood of the abused.