A Story that Perfectly Describes Emotional Abuse [272]
Flying Free
Natalie Hoffman
5.0 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2024
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today's podcast episode features a chapter from my new book, All the Scary Little Gods. It's an analogy I wrote several years ago when I was trying my darndest to explain my situation to people who couldn't wrap their brains around it.
In the years since that time, I've heard from countless Christian women how much it helped them understand what they were going through. Today you can listen to this story as it was recorded for the Audible version of All the Scary Little Gods. I hope it helps you find clarity and hope.
And maybe even a few laughs along the way.
Read the show notes and/or ask Natalie a question here
- If you are a Christian woman who thinks you may be in an emotionally destructive marriage, learn more at https://flyingfreenow.com
- I'll send you (free!) the first chapter of my book, Is It Me? Making Sense of Your Confusing Marriage, which has an assessment to help you figure out if your relationship is abusive or not. All you have to do is hop on my mailing list.
- You can also find out about our online education and support program for women of faith at https://joinflyingfree.com.
- And finally, if you are a divorced Christian woman who wants to take back her life, check out Flying Higher.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Natalie Hoffman of Flying Free Now.com and you're listening to the |
| 0:09.3 | Flying Free Podcast, a support resource for women of faith, looking for hope and healing from hidden |
| 0:16.4 | emotional and spiritual abuse. Welcome to episode 272 of the Flying Free Podcast. I've got a story for you today. Let's begin. |
| 0:32.0 | Let's pretend for a minute that your relationship is like a game of tennis. |
| 0:38.0 | Can you visualize you and your partner on the tennis court? |
| 0:41.0 | The game has just begun and the ball is going back and forth, back and forth. |
| 0:48.1 | Once in a while, the ball drops. This represents relationship conflict. |
| 0:53.0 | Sometimes the ball drops on your side and sometimes it drops on the other side. |
| 0:58.0 | When it drops on your side, you take the initiative to resolve the conflict. your side and you ask your partner to pick up the ball and lob it back, he responds with, |
| 1:16.0 | well, it fell because of how you hit the ball. Not my problem, not my problem. responsibility. |
| 1:24.0 | Hmm. That's odd. |
| 1:27.0 | Not really how you've experienced other relationships, |
| 1:30.0 | but whatever, you want to be cooperative and make this game work so you walk around to his side of the net and pick up the ball for him |
| 1:40.6 | then you go back to your position to get the ball going again because the game matters to you. |
| 1:48.0 | The relationship is important and you take your vows seriously. |
| 1:53.0 | But life happens. |
| 1:56.0 | The ball drops again on his side of the court, |
| 1:59.0 | and once again, he makes no move to pick it up. You make the logical point that if he |
| 2:05.8 | doesn't pick up the ball you won't be able to continue the game. He scowles at |
| 2:11.5 | you and tells you it's your fault and your problem and if you care about the game you'd figure it out. |
| 2:19.0 | You argue with him because this logic does not make sense. You wait longer, but he refuses to pick |
| 2:27.0 | up the ball. So you sadly walk over to his side and pick it up. |
... |
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