Unhealthy emotional ties are just as destructive as unhealthy soul ties. I want to give you an example of an emotional tie that Bishop T.D. Jakes warned of a couple of years ago. He talked about the kind of emotional ties that occur when people who are married have close friendship ties with members of the opposite sex. Bishop Jakes explained that this can be particularly destructive when this emotional tie results because you have conflict going on in a marriage and one of the spouses begins to look outside of the marriage for emotional support and even stability. This is what makes emotional ties so deadly - the subtlety.
I have seldom seen close friendship ties outside of the marriage relationship remain healthy. Why? Because the nature of a close friendship breeds intimacy and fellowship. It is actually more probable that boundaries will be violated with respect to the sharing of secrets, the intimidate details of vulnerability, and the familiarity that goes along with exposing one's heart to another.
When people assure me that there is no way that their close friend - who is not their spouse - could ever be anything more than a friend, I get a little afraid for them. Why? Because I know that I am looking and listening to a person who will not be on their guard for inappropriateness. When you know that the enemy is always looking for a way to get in to deceive and to destroy, you stay on your guard. When, however, you think it cannot happen, that is when it usually does.
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