We erase mistakes. We delete irrelevant material. We edit out unimportant points.

But have you ever been erased by someone?

There was once a Christian woman who got married. Shortly after her wedding day, she was attacked by her husband. He took her dignity and reputation, shamed her, blamed her, treated her like his property, and left her half-dead, alone in her home.

If you are tangled up in a confusing relationship, one effective strategy to gain a solid footing (and eventually a voice) is to write things down. It doesn’t matter if you are a good writer or not. Your purpose isn’t to win a Pulitzer prize. Here are three important things you can record on paper (or on your computer) that will be tremendously helpful to you over time.

Can you have a healthy relationship where there is lying, covering up, pretending, overlooking, and ignoring? Does that foster intimacy? Of course not. Healthy relationships are grown in the soil of vulnerability and safety. When two people are open and honest, they can get close and experience authentic acceptance and love. Anything less is dysfunctional in some way.

There is one key component of every single emotionally destructive relationship. If this one thing is present in your relationship, you are being emotionally abused. Period.

I’ve been posting links to articles about the whole Saeed-Naghmeh thing over on my Facebook page. For the most part, the comments have been sympathetic toward Naghmeh, but there are some comments that I feel a strong urge to talk about over here on my blog. I’m not going to be Smucker’s Sweet, more Sriracha […]