What makes relationships safe?

I went on the "Unsuitable with MaryB. Safrit" Podcast to chat about finding family in vocational singleness.

After college I was part of three different houses with vague aspirations of intentional Christian community. But each fell apart because guys got married, moved for a job, or ran away from conflict.

And every time I connected deeply with people in healthy ways—only for that connection to be torn—I was injured. It felt like a kind of divorce.

Eventually my heart started yelling and screaming in resistance, "Not again! This is too painful!" My heart made clear that I couldn't connect deeply again unless it was safe.

I knew what safe meant:

Permanent.

I was made for consistent, intimate family that is physically and emotionally present.

In time this recognition of my need for lifelong, lived-in human family as a celibate person led to the formation of the Nashville Family of Brothers.

But I don't think my need for this kind of family is unique. I think God has made all of us for stable, intimate family, regardless of whether we're called to vocational singleness or Christian marriage.

I'm convinced we're all made for human family that embodies the mystery of God's love by imitating the permanent, faithful nature of the love in God's family.

Listen to the podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/6-6-what-makes-relationships-safe-feat-pieter-valk/id1440164058?i=1000531618465

What do you think? Is everyone made for lifelong, lived-in family?