Author Archives

Dave Friese

Dave Friese is a pastoral counselor and president of Restore and Rebuild Ministries. He loves ministry, photography, and sports of all kinds.

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Cultivating Spiritual Intimacy in Marriage

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A God-centered relationship too often feels like a nice idea that is always out of reach. We want it, but we aren’t sure what it looks like. We might even try a few ideas on for size, but usually give up in frustration.

Marriage is one of God’s laboratories in which he brings two uniquely different people together to become one.  Intimacy and unity is the end goal of this sanctifying process.  But too often we let our uniqueness get in the way of our oneness.  We focus just on our own needs and not on the needs of our spouse or our relationship.

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God’s Got You!

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I can remember being one of lead climbers on a high ropes course in the Costa Rican cloud forest.  One of the students was trying to make it across something called “the x-rope.” Even though she had two lines attached to her harness, she thought she was going to fall.  She desperately clung to the ropes, immobilized by fear. She thought she was going to die. Fear had overthrown her ability to listen. We calmly tried to instruct her, but to no avail. The only way to help her was to go out and get her.

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Self-Awareness and How We Impact People

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Every spiritual journey takes us to the hardest realities in our lives, the monsters within us, our shadows and strongholds, our willful flesh, our inner demons.  It is essential that we understand the enemies within us or we will inevitably project them outward on to other people.”  – Peter Scazzero in The Emotionally Healthy Church

We all have blind spots. Our lack of self-awareness can cause us to offend, run over and alienate people we love. They react to what we say and we have no clue why.  We get defensive, and the battle is on.  Both parties are wounded and emotional walls go up and we are left wondering, “What just happened?”

Self-awareness helps us understand and manage our emotions. It gives us a greater capacity for social awareness and empathy.  It is a critical building block for enhancing our relationships. Today we are going to take a brief look at what it is and how we can develop our own self-awareness.

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