One hallmark of healthy relationships and families is a sense of loyalty. Loyalty is fine when it is voluntarily given, yet becomes unhealthy or dysfunctional when it is forced. When loyalty must be obtained by coercion, something is wrong in the family. On the surface, the coerced loyalty looks like something that is ‘good’. Although it has the appearance of a good trait, the dynamics of such forced loyalty is that it often leads to people distrusting their inner voice of intuition. When your inner voice tells you that “something is wrong with this picture”, you need to speak out even if your spouse may view your questions as being disloyal. Even though something may not be going on, for you to have such doubts suggests that something may be wrong with the spirit of oneness within the marriage itself.
Best Regards,
Jeff Murrah
