Welcome to the Awesome Marriage Podcast, a place for honest conversations about marriage and how to have the relationship that God has designed for you.

I am your co-host, Christina Dodson. On the show will be our host, Dr. Kim Kimberling and Nell Smith.

To engage with the Awesome Marriage podcast, use the hashtag Awesome Marriage.

I want to welcome you today to the Awesome Marriage podcast. We are welcoming back my good friend,

my pastor, Chris Ville, from Life Church. Chris, thanks for joining us again on the podcast.

Thanks for having me, Dr. Kim.

Well, this month we are talking about some big issues in marriage, some major struggles

that people are dealing with in their marriages, and this is one that probably pains a lot of marriages, and that's the

whole thing of codependency.

So let's kind of take a little bit of time to define that.

I think a lot of it is when our identity gets caught in someone else, when there's

excessive reliance on somebody

else, for their approval, for our sense of identity.

You know, I think a lot of times we think of codependency along with things like enabling

some behaviors like alcoholism or drugs or immaturity or responsibility.

All those things that result in dysfunction in our marriages.

Anything you would add to that definition?

No, I think I would say someone that's found themselves in that place is someone that needs

the objective counsel of others, because typically if you find yourself in a codependent situation,

you'll rarely see it or acknowledge it. And typically you need someone else to help you get there.

But I think your definition of being excessively needy on something from someone else is spot on.

You know, I think there probably are a lot of different types and they can play out

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