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Your spouse is likely harboring things they’d love to correct in you. We’ll admit to the surface stuff, but are you willing to go deeper? Stepping into their world with open, humble dialogue is key to cultivating a marriage that thrives.

You can’t just “stop sinning.” And with sin, there’s always something lurking behind the surface. Ask the Lord to examine your heart. Once you determine the root cause, then you can apply the eternal perspectives of the gospel.

We often think we have a handle on our sin, but Scripture shows us a different picture. It may look tame on the surface, but what lies beneath? Sin is always trying to take us further than we ever though we’d go.

Be wise by recognizing that human pride is the greatest barrier to true dialogue. Have a humble, teachable spirit and set aside your pride.

Be wise by navigating adversarial dialogue with civil words. Gracious words, seasoned with kindness, will tear down barriers.

Be wise in dialogue by determining to prepare through prayer — especially when the dialogue is adversarial.

Wisdom in dialogue is determining to be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger (James 1:19). When you enter into dialogue, put your expectations aside. Expectations are an invitation to disappointment.

Wisdom in dialogue seeks to learn the other person’s story. Until you understand someone’s story, you’ll likely have more judgement than empathy.

Terminology today tends to be a moving target, so genuine dialogue is key. Wisdom seeks to understand before seeking to be understood so as not to perpetuate misunderstanding.

How do we apply wisdom? Start with the Word. Understand how to discern between things you can change, and things you can’t or you’ll default to what is wise in your own eyes.

Where do we get wisdom? Start by fearing God. Wisdom doesn’t guarantee you won’t have problems in life, only that you won’t be the cause.

The world is steadily growing in knowledge, but also increasing in problems. We need more than knowledge: we need wisdom, which is the proper application of knowledge.

Jesus is the only one who has ever fully lived up to what He believed. Otherwise, Christian or not, we’re on a level playing field when it comes to hypocrisy.

When hypocrisy is revealed, there’s always a blast radius, and collateral damage most often occurs within the family.

The weight of pretense will crush you if you carry too much too often.