Welcome to this week's bonus interview on the Prayers of Rest podcast.

I'm Kendra Stanton, your co-host, and this week, Asherita is joined by her guest, Gary Thomas,

to talk about how to pray for a friend in a toxic relationship.

Gary Thomas is the author of over 20 books that together have

sold two million copies and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. These books

include When to Walk Away, Finding Freedom from Toxic People, Sacred Marriage, the Sacred

Search, and the Gold medallion award winner,

Authentic Faith. Keep listening to hear why maybe you should stop praying for the toxic

people in your life and why staying in a toxic relationship is not your cross to bear. Are you

ready to listen in to this conversation? Here we go.

Well, Gary, thank you so much for joining me here today.

That's my pleasure.

Yeah.

So as we chatted a little bit before I hit record, the season we're praying through tricky relationships.

And in an ideal world, everyone would always get along. There would be no conflict, no

miscommunication, and everything would be just peachy. And there will be a world like that

someday, just not today. I love that we're starting with that because that is our hope. And I think

that's why our hearts break when we don't experience that in relationships,

when instead there is discord and disunity when there is hurt, not just unintentional,

but sometimes downright purposeful.

And our hearts ache because I think God has placed that desire for his shalom, that desire for his peace and unity in our hearts.

And unfortunately, that's not always the case.

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