EP. 15: Navigating Difficult Relationships (with Patricia Raybon)

How do you navigate difficult relationships? How do you handle deep disagreements with people you love? What does it look like to deal with conflict when the person you’re at odds with is a family member or a close friend? Today on God Hears Her, Patricia Raybon joins Eryn and Elisa to share her story of navigating a complicated relationship and offers practical wisdom for those of us who may find ourselves in a similar situation.

Bio of guest: 

Patricia Raybon is an award-winning author and journalist and a writer for both Our Daily Bread Ministries and DaySpring’s (in)courage Blog. She guides people into conversations on faith, race, and grace, and lives out her practical wisdom through relationships with people from different ethnic and faith backgrounds. Her most recent book is titled Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace.

Notes and Quotes: 

1. “[The topic of] race relations still confuses, worries, angers, and surprises people . . . But as I look at history, there has never been a time where people were not divided by race or ethnicity.”
2. “Our stories are not our own . . . What I discovered is that these personal stories are not mine. They give the people that read them permission to reflect on their own lives.”
3. “Every mother has a dream of what her family is going to look like, and when that dream is rejected, there is a grieving period.”
4. “The Lord encouraged me to love her [my daughter], and trust Him.”
5. “We are still able to be a family even though the details of our conflict have not been resolved.”
6. “We agreed to respect our differences, and I agreed to respect the choice she had made. Not to accept the choice, but to respect [her].”
7. “People love the stories when people find their way back to the faith, but that is not always the end of the story . . . Know that sometimes God is still writing.”
8. “When you model that respect, it invites it back.”
9. In the digital world today, we can almost always find people being hateful.
10. “Tolerance allows my family to keep going.”

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned In Show: 

• Show Notes on godhearsher.org
• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• Share the love by giving this episode a 5-star rating on iTunes!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Order God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women by Women on Amazon.  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• Order Patricia’s Book: My First White Friend: https://amzn.to/3heKCvd
• Order Patricia’s Book: Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace https://amzn.to/3ifqj2e
• Free eBooklet to Download: Clinging to Hope in the Storm https://discoveryseries.org/courses/clinging-to-hope-in-the-storm/
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Verses Mentioned in Show: 

• Romans 8:26. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+8%3A26&version=NIV

• Revelation 2:4. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+2%3A4&version=NIV