While painful relationships can rightly be labeled a "tragedy," even more tragic is the one who never knows deep relational pain. Their understanding of the world they live in, and of God, and of love, will always lack a certain quality. Yet, there are moments we would trade that quality for release from the bind of a relationship that is somehow harmful to us. God meets us both in our trusting him to create something from our painful relationships, and in our asking the question: "What boundaries do I need to put in place?" This book is by no means exhaustive. Very far from it, actually. Only snippets from my life, polaroids of experiences that illustrate greater themes which are at the foundation of every painful relationship: loss, communication, boundaries, guilt, love, and trauma. God, meet us in all these things. TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1.

What Gossip Says About God 2. Why Being a Stepchild Is So Hard 3. Why Our Parents' Divorce Hurts In Ways We Don't Even See 4. Why Female-Male Friendships Are So Awkward 5. How to Save Intimacy from Competitiveness 6. Four Things It's Okay to Say When You're Hurt 7. Four Things It's Okay to Feel Around Advice-Giving Married Friends.