“Let’s be honest.  Many of us at some time in our lives have felt as though something is missing. All of us have struggled with loneliness.  We’ve all felt detached, unaccepted, separated from the group we’d like to be part of.  And when we find ourselves in this empty space, we typically search outside ourselves — often compulsively — for something or someone to fill it.  We shop, we drink, we eat, we do anything and everything to distract ourselves from the pain of feeling alone.  Most of all, we tell ourselves, If I find the right person, my life will be complete. Too bad it’s not that simple.  If it were, we’d have friends that never failed us and marriages that never fractured.  The truth is, the cause of our emptiness is not a case of missing persons in our lives, but a case of incompletion in our soul.

I order to build healthy relationships, you must be well on your way to becoming whole or complete.  You must be establishing wholeness, a sense of self-worth, and a healthy self-concept.”

– Drs. Les & Leslie Parrott in “Relationships: An Open & Honest Guide to Making Bad Relationships Better & Good Relationships Great” (Zondervan, 1998)