Happy Friday, and welcome back to the Ask Pastor John podcast, listener Rachel and

Cameroon, right?

And to ask Pastor John, we all have difficult experiences in life with respect to interpersonal

communication and conflict, both with fellow Christians and non-Christians.

Processing this with other people can lead to gossip or slander, of course.

Is there benefit to processing these conflicts with our spouse or is this gossip and slander?

For example, Pastor John, if you had a difficult interpersonal interaction or relationship with

an elder in your church, is it okay to process through that at home in confidence with

no well?

Is such a practice helpful?

Well, it certainly can be helpful, and it's fraught with dangers as well.

And maybe the first thing I should address is just the issue of permission, that is,

it is possible to simply ask the person that you are having difficulty with or in conflict

with permission.

May I share this issue with my spouse?

Now that may seem awkward since the whole issue is conflict and difficulty, and yet you

may be surprised because they might feel respected because of the request instead of you're

just assuming that you're going to go talk about it with anybody you please.

So it might go a long way towards some healing.

And if you have permission, then I think you're free at least to consider the possibility

of speaking with your spouse about the situation.

But even then, it's not automatic, I don't think, whether you should or not.

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