Isolation Defined
What comes to your mind when I say the word "isolation"?
Program: Real FamilyLife
Resources mentioned in program are no longer available from FamilyLife.
Dennis Rainey: What comes to your mind when I say the word "isolation"?
Guest: What comes to my mind when you say isolation - when two people are married, but they don't talk, and they're just barely friends.
You go on a date, and you talk about the mortgage.[ Read Full Transcript ]
Dennis Rainey: Those are pretty good definitions of isolation.
The dictionary will tell you isolation is "the condition of being alone, separated, set apart," but I like the one my daughter once said when she was ten. I was working in my study when she walked in.
She asked me what I was writing about, and I told her, "Isolation. Do you know what that means?"
She said, "Oh, yeah, Daddy. That's when somebody excludes you."
Now, I may be a bit prejudiced about my ten-year-old daughter's definition, but I thought it was a profound observation of human relationships. Husbands and wives excluding one another is exactly what happens when isolation infects a marriage. The irony of it is, most of us got married to AVOID being isolated.
One final thought. What you say and do will make your mate feel either included or excluded. If you lovingly and energetically nurture and maintain your marriage, you can fight the natural drift toward isolation.
I'm Dennis Rainey, I've been married nearly 30 years, and that's REAL FamilyLife.
Date: 10/9/2007 12:00:00 AM
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