Trust is the glue in any relationship and is clearly the non-negotiable element of interdependent relationships. We will not be interdependent with those we don't trust. Trust is somewhat like a thermometer, reflecting the current state of a relationship.

I feel like a little tug in a great storm. But I'm fastened to a great ship on ahead. It's going into port and can't lose its way.

his biggest problem was his need for a problem.

Our first step to make good decisions and not make wrong decisions is to live by the Word of God ... A man who lives by the Word of God will make the right choices and prosper in all his ways ... The Bible promises that if we trust God with our lives, He will meet all of our needs and direct all of our paths.

We have moved away from traditional Judeo-Christian values toward a worldview that lets us self-select values based on whether they serve our self-interests. Like a child loose in a candy store, we pick our values, we determine our own fate, we captain our own ship.

To protect our self-image, we kid, trick, and fool ourselves into believing the visible you is somehow real. To see ourselves as we really are, we must acknowledge our inability to do so without God's help.

The fatal flaw of human wisdom is that it promises that you can change your relationships without needing to change yourself. Every painful thing we experience in relationships is meant to remind us of our need for God. And every good thing we experience is meant to be a metaphor of what we can only find in Him.... We settle for the satisfaction of human relationships when they were meant to point us to the perfect relational satisfaction found only with God.

Our purpose (in relationship) is to get what we want but God's purpose is to give us what we really need. We think things are going well only if we are getting along with others. But God says that it is also when we are not getting along with others that he is accomplishing his purpose. God has designed our relationship to function as both a diagnosis and a cure.

Don't fear your weaknesses—God supplies all the strength you need. Be afraid of those moments when you think you're independently strong.

Only when awe of God rules your heart will you be able to keep the pleasures of the material world in their proper place.

Honestly facing your lack of sovereignty over your own life produces either anxiety or relief. Anxiety is God-forgetting. It is the result of thinking that is life is on your shoulders, that it is your job to figure it all out and keep things in order.

I came to see that I was wired for awe, that awe of something sits at the bottom of everything I say and do. But I wasn't just wired for awe. I was wired for awe of God. No other awe satisfies the soul. No other awe can give my heart the peace, rest, and security that it seeks. I came to see that I needed to trace awe of God down to the most mundane of human decisions and activities.