174: Moving on from Difficult Friendships with Amber Durgan (Friendship Matters Series #8)

Amber Durgan is a wife, mama, blogger, podcaster, and co-author author of two books. Her heart is for encouraging and equipping women to build deeper relationships with Christ. Today she comes on the show to chat about the hard topic of having to move on from difficult friendships.

What We Chat about in Today’s Episode:

~The hard and hurtful friendship seasons of life and how to handle them biblically

~Moving on from harmful friendships in a way that honors the Lord and also honors the other person

~Good that the Lord can graciously bring from even something as hard as broken friendships

~The Matthew 18 Method and what it looks like in friendships

~The importance of walking through a difficult friendship season with the right spirit and attitude

~Laying the brokenness aside and not letting it consume us

~How much easier our lives would be if we got out of our own ways and actually walked by the Spirit

~What our goal should be when we are moving on from a challenging friendship

~Blessing the other person, even when we have to move on from our friendship with them

~Some of our own experiences with broken friendships and good that God has brought from them

~The importance of going back out there and initiating friendship again

~How to know when it is time to move on from a harmful friendship

~What we’re missing out on when we rush too fast to the step of “moving on”

~The part forgiveness plays even when we move on

~Reconciliation and what to do when only one party wants to reconcile

~Forgiveness as a journey; walking in continual forgiveness

~How things that happen in our lives are also meant to encourage and inspire others

~Being grateful for the blessings in your life

~Holding on to hope in the midst of hard seasons

~And more!

Resources Mentioned

Offer for a free audiobook and 30 day trial membership from Audible: www.audibletrial.com/HomeandHearth

My other episodes with Amber

Our Friendship book

My solo episode on the 5 red flags of difficult friendships

Amber’s Christian eating disorder recovery ministry

Amber’s ministry for families

Sally Clarkson

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where you Are by Ann Voskamp

Karen Kingsbury’s Baxter Family series

INSPIRING QUOTES TO REMEMBER:

“There can be reconciliation that is healthy. But if the friendship is too harmful, there is a way to move on in a way that honors God and honors the other person.”

“The Lord takes even our brokenness and makes beauty.”

“We aren’t good at pressing into the hard and staying in the hard to see what we can learn from it. But we see in Matthew 18 that the Lord’s heart is on restoration when possible. We are to lean in and press in to the hard seasons and walk by the Spirit in them.”

“When we are in a hard friendship season, we need to make sure we are walking through it with the right spirit and attitude, laying the brokenness aside and not letting it consume us.”

“Even when moving on from a broken friendship, we still need to be desiring the good of the other person. We need to still want what is best for them. And part of that is keeping the situation in proper circles and refusing to blare it all over social media. We are to send that friend off with all the best we can give them.”

“There does need to be a time for healing after the breakup of a friendship. But once you have had that time, you do need to go back out there and do the work of initiating a friendship again. You are meant to be in community.”

“God’s heart for us is not one of wanting to hurt us. But He knows we live in a broken world where hurt will happen, and in His grace, He brings so much good even from hurt.”

“The biggest thing in all of this is walking by the Spirit in continual forgiveness whether we have to move on from the friendship or not.”

“In your hurt, you are seen, you are loved, you are known, and you are valued.”

WHERE YOU CAN FIND AMBER ONLINE:

Website - Cultivating Jewels

Instagram –@cultivatingjewels, @abundantfamilyculture

Facebook - Cultivating Jewels, Abundant Family Culture

Podcast - Cultivating Jewels

To Leave a Rating and Review on iTunes

Have you been encouraged or inspired by today’s episode? If so, could I ask a little favor? If you could leave the podcast a rating and review in iTunes, that would be amazing! The more ratings and reviews a podcast receives, the more iTunes shows that podcast to other folks searching for shows to listen to, so by leaving me a rating and review, you truly are partnering with me in this podcast ministry to encourage and help as many women as we possibly can. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that! Here’s how:

If you’re on your computer:

Access iTunes on your desktop and type Home and Hearth in the search box on the upper right hand corner.
Click on the podcast photo when it comes up
Click on “Ratings and Reviews” beneath the podcast title
Under “Customer Reviews”, click on “Write a Review”
Click on how many stars you want to rate the podcast and then write out your review and click submit
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