Clinton, Dr. Tim & Sibcy, Dr. Gary. (2006). Why You Do the Things You Do: The Secret of Healthy Relationships. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Summary
Relationships are in our everyday life all around us, but the most intimate relationships we have include God, our parents, our children and our spouse. God implanted the desire for intimacy or relationship within us when He created Adam and Eve. God hardwired the desire for relationship in us because He desires relationship. Adam and Eve had the perfect relationship with each other and God for a while. God continued to desire relationship with Adam and Eve even after their disobedience. When our relationship with God is lacking, we will try to fill the hole created with other relationships to give ourselves meaning, purpose and value. These other relationships might include addictions, shopping, work, or entertainment. Our parents begin the heart of the relationship cycle when we are born. They determine, as their parents before them, whether we are secure in our relationships, or if we are avoidant, ambivalent, or disorganized. Our relationship style influences most of life’s important issues such as how we deal with grief, marriage, and parenting.
Our view of ourselves and those we hold most dear begin to be formed as we connect with our mothers. Mothers are thrust into emotional, relational and physically challenging environments where she must do the best she can while molding her child’s self-image daily. Human children are totally dependent on their mothers for survival. Children’s earliest relationships shape the chemical processes in the brain that determine how we control our emotions, impulses and even develop memories of our early family life; therefore, mother-child relationships are vitally important in a child’s development physically, emotionally, and spiritually. This relationship molds the ability to form healthy relationships later in