Quotes about Communication

The mark of a spiritual man or woman is a listening heart, not a lecturing tongue.

I'm going to ask you to do something that may feel even more painful: when you get close to becoming engaged, put any public announcement on delay for a few weeks and spend several sessions talking through all these issues again with someone else present.

One can do many external deeds of love and still hold back the really precious gift, the inner self. This gift can be given only through communication.

A defeatist attitude kills almost as many marriages as do affairs.

When truth is rejected, spend your time on those who will receive it instead of begging closed-hearted people to reconsider.

Chapter 8 explores Jesus' famous passage where he warns us not to throw pearls to pigs. Chapter 9 looks at the difference between labeling and name-calling; if it seems harsh to you to call someone "toxic," you'll find this chapter particularly helpful.

What if I ran all my actions through this grid: "If my son-in-law treated my daughter the way I'm treating my wife, how would I feel?" Men, that's the way what you're doing looks like to God. Women, just switch the genders. Imagine hearing your (perhaps future) daughter-in-law talking to her friends about your son with the same tone and words you use to describe your husband: How does that feel?

Families start to break down—and marriages often break down, for that matter—when we stop enjoying each other.

God has much to say to us, but we are often too busy to listen. Our minds have a tendency to get too occupied during the day, or sometimes we are too busy praying to God with our own agendas and have lost our listening ears. Dreams are one way God can "break in" and get something across to us that we might not be open to hearing during the day.

I bought into the lie," she said, "that because Darin has a strong, masculine personality he must be the manipulator and I must be the victim. God showed me that it was really more the other way around. By withholding affection, respect, and communication, I often played the role of the manipulator.

Start these conversations with questions that seek understanding, not with accusations that seek submission.

Some use the label toxic much too broadly as an excuse to avoid difficult, different, or hurting people.