Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Thriving Beyond Belief with Cheryl Scruggs


Jun 19, 2019

Mary's life is a testament of the Lord using broken things and creating something absolutely beautiful out of them. From a young age, Mary grew up in an environment of brokenness, chaos, instability, and darkness. From a place of distrust and abuse, Mary was exposed to the Gospel. She met Jesus and never turned back.

From this place of healing, the Lord gave her the gift of writing. Mary was able to write and work out her past in a way that would bless others through her gift. An author of 41 books, Mary shares what she is learning through both nonfiction and fiction.

We focus today on one of her books entitled The Seven Deadly Friendships. I love this topic because I feel like there are not many books on healthy relationships with friends, how to set boundaries, and how to handle a toxic friendship in a Godly way.

We take time to discuss each of these bad "friends", all cleverly named in her book. She walks us through what each kind of toxic trait may look like in a friend, and finding the place of whether or not you need to step away from that relationship. Mary vulnerably discusses her past and talks about the fact that there are certain people she is naturally drawn to that are toxic, simply based on what she knew growing up.

Mary and I focus on recognizing those key negative traits that we are drawn to and how to avoid those moving forward. We even talk about the fact that each of us may be exhibiting one of these seven traits with others and how to recognize, repent, and change our actions with others from negative to positive.

This episode today is so important, life-giving, and practical for us not only for how we can be better friends and surround ourselves with healthy relationships, but also that the Lord doesn't want us to stay in our circumstances.

No matter what your past is, what you have been through, he wants to lead you into a place of healing and a place of redemption. We are not meant to sit in our struggle forever. We are meant to strive to be all that the Lord created us to be.