My key take-away on this book by Henry Cloud and John Sims Townsend is… in order for people to grow, we need to begin moving back to the way God perfectly created man’s first environment in the Garden of Eden. Namely, Adam and Eve had perfect and intimate relationship with God and perfect and intimate relationship with each other. In other words, we need to be right in our relationship with God and right in our relationship with others. If either of these is not in order, then our lives will be out of order as well.

The book is tough to get into but provides valuable insight when it is taken as a whole. I believe the authors wrote it primarily for Christian counselors and that made the lay person in me struggle through the first half of the book.

Cloud and Townsend suggest that counselors take a balanced approach in counseling and helping people grow out of their issues. In their experience, a miraculous one-time instant healing of someone with deep issues rarely happens. However, a self-empowered healing rarely happens either. God works over time to help people heal their issues. But, God works through the body of Christ (other people) to liberate us from what entangles us. We have to work at it ourselves in the context of community, but it is God’s power that will make our efforts successful.

In addition to counseling, the general principles are true for anyone wishing to grow in any area. I have found it critical to bounce ideas off, to be challenged by, to be held accountable by, and to to encouraged by others.