Summary: We get a decent amount of questions about how to engage healthy friendship (and touch) as single people. So, we asked one of our dear single friends, Meg Baatz, to help us navigate some more of this friendship quagmire. Some of the questions we explored include: What is the difference between finding community as a single person or as a married person? What is Meg's journey with finding community? Why are people so awkward when it comes to being friends with people of the same sex (if those people experience attractions toward the same sex)? How can we all be friends? How can we engage healthy touch with our friends? Dive in with us today at the podcast table. Highlights: "I knew [community living] would be hard. I knew it wouldn't solve all of my relational needs. I knew marriage wouldn't [either]. I knew trying to find the right *people* can be the same pitfall as trying to find the right *person.*" --Meg Baatz "I can desire to have the majority of my relational or emotional needs met from women rather than from God first and then from women ... [But] it's easy to go one extreme or the other: 'I have this really deep need for relational with women.' Or 'Oh, no! I don't want to idolize my friendships, and so I'm going to retreat out of fear or shame.'" --Meg Baatz "I think we can be ashamed of and afraid of our limits [with physical touch]. Instead we need to accept them ... and say, 'How can I honor myself as someone who God loves while loving and respecting other people through the boundaries I set up?'" --Meg Baatz Do the Next Thing: Check out Meg's organization she works for, Lead Them Home, here: https://www.leadthemhome.org Dive into Meg's personal site here: https://blog.megbaatz.com Question of the Week for Next Week: What "stupid human" trick can you do? (Roll your tongue, shake your eyes, do some random dance move...?) Email podcast@lauriekrieg.com or find us on Instagram to answer: https://www.instagram.com/laurie_krieg/ For More: https://lauriekrieg.com/podcast/healthy-community-and-touch-as-a-single-person/
