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The "Living with Heart" Podcast is brought to you by Chip Dodd Resources (www.chipdodd.com) and The Voice of the Heart Center (vothcenter.com). You can connect with Dr. Chip Dodd at chip@chipdodd.com. Contact Bryan Barley for coaching at bryan@vothcenter.com.

God has created “woman” with extraordinary gifts. These gifts that need to be encouraged and expanded. Women have for centuries been minimized and diminished, sometimes mistakenly using God as the “reason” and “right” to do so.

A man has a responsibility to honor his spouse with encouragement, and with the security that supports the expansion of her gifts.

Conclusive Main Points of “Understanding a Woman’s Heart,” Episodes #63-#69 before sharing the importance of the Hebrew word Ezer, which is used to refer to women in the Bible

The Need to Listen:

A great sadness in many marriages is that the man actually doesn’t truly listen. So often, he is so “busy” attempting to “prove” himself, “earn” love through performance, and mistakenly equating being respected with actually being controlling, that he ends up being responsible FOR her rather than response-able TO her. Episodes #32 and Episode #43.

The man often believes that:

If she has feelings, he has to fix them, rather than listen to them.
If she is in a “mood” or thinking “negatively,” he has to change it, rather than be curious about her.
If she is behaving in ways that he doesn’t understand, he has to stop it, rather than question her to find out more.
If he is going to be emotionally connected to her and get his own needs met, he must “read her mind,” which discounts actually listening to what she is saying, rather than simply being humble enough to believe what she is saying.

Suppression of Expression = Depressing the Heart

If the man doesn’t learn the “art” of listening to the woman (Episode #68 and Episode #69) he will be participating in suppressing the person that God created to be fully alive. The “fruit” produced by a woman who is fully alive, will be diminished.

“You are on earth. There is no cure for that.” Samuel Beckett:

Regardless of the mistakes that all humans make in relationship, we are inevitably and inextricably created for relationship and its benefits. Mistakes and pain in relationship are always going to be part and parcel of marriage. Each person must be able to relate to suffering and what it is like to be a human being on this earth. Each person must develop great tolerance for being imperfect. This side of heaven, there is no perfect.

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Ep. 693 - The System Hates You