My Thoughts: Relationships

One of the biggest struggles that I find that people have are relationships. All kinds of relationships ranging from romantic, family, business/work, and friendships. I believe that one of the keys to a wonderful life is learning how to become successful in all of our relationships that we have and when we do this our lives will be richer and fuller. The question is how do we do this? The answer is rather simple but at the same time very difficult to do.

The first thing that we must do first is evaluate our relationship with God. People, especially christians, do not understand that God is relational. All relationships are important to him and they help to show us our relationship to him. God uses natural things in our lives symbolically for us to really understand him but often times we are so caught up in ourselves that we miss the point because we think about how it often affects us. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about the story of the good samaritan and how everyone passed the man by on the side of the road who had been robbed and beaten then left for dead. Then the samaritan man, who was actually looked down upon, help the man. Dr. King said that there were two questions that were asked. The first by those who passed the man by was, "If I help this man what will happen to me?" The second question asked by the samaritan was, "If I don't help this man what will happen to him?" We often treat our relationships so selfishly by always looking at how it affects us and what we can get out of them.

The second thing that we must do is realize that our gifts, talents and possessions were never meant for us. Everything that we have and who we are is always for the benefit for others. God uses our relationship with our children to show us this. Our children never really give anything to us but we give all that we have to them because their survival depends on it. When you look at the world as a whole we depend upon other in order to live. Someone needs to grow the food and sell it in order for you to buy it. So forth and so on. Never rest on your status. Whether you have money or not. Whether you are a manager, supervisor or just an employee. You are important.

The third thing is that how successful we are in our relationships shows where we our in our relationship with God. The scriptures says, "If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must also love his brother also." 1 John 4: 20-21. Our relationships on all levels were designed to help us become closer to the Lord and how we are in our relationships can help someone really see the Lord. Forgive others when they have done wrong to you and ask for forgiveness when you have wronged others. Do not treat you relationships selfishly and remember that it is better to give than receive and figure out how you can be a blessing to others instead of how they can be a blessing to you.