Rooting Out Relationship Killers

by Stephen Matthew

Healthy relationships enrich our lives like nothing else. We all want them and can have them if we embrace the principles explored by Stephen Matthew in this practical book. He unpacks the idea that nurturing and maintaining a healthy relationship is much like gardening. The soil of the relationship must be cultivated by rooting out any “weeds” that may threaten to stifle or kill the relationship in question. And it must also be nourished with appropriate relationship “feeds” to ensure fruitfulness and continued health. This life-affirming, positive book aims to strengthen and enrich all our relationships, keeping them healthy and strong. It is both positive – in that it focuses on relationship building – and it is preventative, because if we take the advice offered here, we can avoid the pain of major relationship dysfunction.Stephen’s book will make you a better friend, husband, wife, mother, father, brother, sister, team member, business partner, leader, manager or employee. As a result, your life will enrich those you relate to and do them good too. Everyone wins when we build relationships God’s way.

146 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2013

Reviews

[KC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick, easy and surprisingly comprehensive read

I enjoyed this book. I thought it did a good job of bringing together a lot of helpful advice for navigating relationships. He had a lot of things to think through in examining what in and why relationships can be unhealthy and how to identify and counteract that. I really appreciated his point early on that that this is a commitment to work on yourself, not others because they must be released to desire and do this work in their own hearts and his charge to take on the attitude of “Because I love you, I will be the best I can for others, and get the help I need when I need it.” Because ultimately “you can never make enough positive changes to make a wounded person happy.

They need their own healing.” I also really benefitted from the reminders that just as there are different seasons, in life there are different seasons in and for various relationships and we need God’s wisdom to identify the seasons as well as to prioritize the relationships.


I’m really glad to read this just before I start another book on relationships I just recently discovered and am excited about by someone who frequently says, “healthy people make healthy relationships”.