\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God:<\/em> Can I warn you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joshua:<\/em> Yeah. Please do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God:<\/em> (nods) Once you learn this, every relationship in your life will take on a new tint<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joshua:<\/em> \u2026That doesn\u2019t sound like a warning. Is that in any way bad?<\/p>\n\n\n\n God:<\/em> (shakes head) Not at all, but it will feel like you\u2019re starting over<\/em>. But it will be a good thing<\/em><\/strong>. You won\u2019t actually<\/em><\/strong> be starting over, but you will feel like you are from your end<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joshua:<\/em> Okay. Sounds inevitable for healing though. Let\u2019s do it!<\/em> What do you want me to know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n God:<\/em> \u2026 Listen: [you were taught] the wrong foundation for relationship<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First impressions don\u2019t matter. Second impressions don\u2019t matter. Third impressions DON\u2019T MATTER<\/em><\/strong>. What matters is first CONNECTION<\/em><\/strong>. Relationship isn\u2019t about impression<\/em>, but CONNECTION<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have been taught to concern yourself with impression<\/em><\/strong>. That is the wrong foundation for a relationship. You don\u2019t build a relationship on impression<\/em><\/strong>, but on connection<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But [you were taught] to focus on impression<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joshua:<\/em> \u2026Wow. That is\u2026 fundamental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026Um\u2026 I feel kinda like a terrible friend now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God:<\/em> (nods) It is<\/em> a terrible way to build a relationship. The foundation is \u201cwhat do you think of me?\u201d rather than \u201chow do we connect?\u201d The idea from there is, if you think well of me<\/em>, we can build a relationship! But someone can think well of you, and not be a good friend<\/em>. Or someone can connect deeply with you, and not be impressed or intimidated by you<\/em><\/strong>. You had a terrible foundation<\/em><\/strong>. This isn\u2019t something everyone deals with. You cannot claim \u201cthis is just our culture\u201d. Joshua\u2014this is YOUR culture<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n First impression isn\u2019t a thing for true relationship. Don\u2019t try for impression<\/em> if you want to be friends, move towards CONNECTION<\/em><\/strong>. Impression<\/em> is intrinsically tied to disconnect<\/em>. It says \u201cI must protect\u201d, instead of \u201cI must connect<\/em>\u201d. This is why you often GET ANXIOUS AROUND MESSAGING<\/em><\/strong>. Because you are thinking of IMPRESSION<\/em><\/strong>. But you have found sacrificing impression often builds CONNECTION<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe who wants friends must himself be friendly<\/em>\u201d. Not \u201cmake a good impression\u201d. But \u201cbe friendly<\/em>\u201d. What makes a \u201cfriend that sticks closer than a brother\u201d? It isn\u2019t GOOD IMPRESSIONS<\/em><\/strong>. It is CONNECTION<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joshua:<\/em> \u2026Yeah. What you said was right. I\u2019m gonna have to start over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God:<\/em> (shakes his head) No you\u2019re not. No one else was playing by your rules<\/em><\/strong>. You just have to recognize you were looking at the wrong THING in your relationships<\/em><\/strong>. What you thought were markers for connection, didn\u2019t matter<\/em><\/strong>. What you thought were markers against connection<\/em><\/strong>, were what actually made it!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re not starting over in all of your relationships. You just feel like it<\/em><\/strong>. This will be good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And you\u2019ll also find, connection is easy when your strategy isn\u2019t built on disconnection<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2026 God: Can I warn you? Joshua: Yeah. Please do. God: (nods) Once you learn this, every relationship in your life will take on a new tint. Joshua: \u2026That doesn\u2019t sound like a warning. Is that in any way bad? God: (shakes head) Not at all, but it will feel like you\u2019re starting over. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/todaygodtaughtme.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}