I Shouldn't Feel This Way by Dr. Alison CookSample

The best, healthiest relationships are strong enough and flexible enough to honor the whole story of all your experiences together—the moments of hurt and the moments where you are having a blast. The moments of awkward miscommunication and the moments of glorious connection.

As you name, frame, and brave complexity within your relationships, each truth-piece becomes a treasured part of the larger story. It’s as if you’re creating a giant quilt that tells the whole story of your relationship. Some patches of the quilt almost ripped apart. You can see where you had to mend the tear, but you love that section now—the work you did held up for the long haul. Another section of the quilt is faded—a reminder that you drifted apart for a season. You almost lost each other, but that wasn’t the end of your story.

And then you see those vibrant patches. The ones where the colors are vivid and clear. They might represent the good times. Or they might represent the awkward conversations and the miscommunications that you can now laugh about with each other. You look at all the material you have yet to work with—there’s so much left to weave together. You’re not sure exactly what it will look like, but you’re confident. You know how to face what’s hard. And deep inside you know that nothing could tear this tapestry apart—this rich story of your relationship that you’ve worked so hard to create together.

Prayer

Father, thank you for creating me to have relationships with those around me. Please be with me during difficult times in these relationships, and please help me to nurture them so that they are healthy and uplifting. Amen.