People and Relationships

This is one that i wrote a while ago...enjoy :)

this is one thing i've been thinking a whole lot about lately. one of my close friends asked me, "why even bother? you're gonna get hurt anyways. what's the point?"

the point is, that this is what were called to have here on earth. God placed us here for a reason, a purpose. and that's to bring people to His Kingdom. part of doing that is learning how to build relationship with others to show God's love and bless them. relationships are tricky things though. they deal with emotions, personalities, different ways of doing things, different ways of thinking. as people, were always going to mess up, one way or another. you're always going to get hurt by someone at some time. that's just reality. it's the price of being imperfect.

how are we able to go on without relationship though? God wants to have relationship with us. and he's the ultimate source of not being hurt. he's perfect. with him, we'll have an incredible relationship. he might do things we don't like, or we don't think is right for us. but he knows. so just don't mess with him. but you can talk to him. he can fill the void of the person that you're missing, or wishing you could talk to. and through that relationship with you, we are able to know how to have relationship with other people.

one of my big things is having relationship with people. i love it. it's one of my greatest joys in life. but no matter what, each person i have relationship with, will hurt me at some point. whether it be something they say, or how they treat me, or something they do. regardless, i'm willing to take the risk, take the chance, and simply trust. that's the one thing about relationship though, it takes trust. a wise friend once told me, "you can only trust someone as much as they trust you." in some cases this is wrong, but in my experience, it is true. Trust is a big issue for some people, because they've been hurt in the past or simply cause it's just not something that is a norm for them and they don't know how to let others in. But being in relationship with others is such an important part of being human. even for those of us who aren't normally relational people. The kewlest part of being in relationship with God is that when you have a strong relationship with him, relationship with others comes easier.

i was talking to my mentor, Jen, the other day and we were talking about relationships. She told me that the relationships i have now will not necessarily be life long relationships, even though that's what i want them to be. God puts people in our lives for a season, however long or short that season may be is up to him. but my mindset when she said that changed from, "yay! i love my friends and i can't wait to have them with me for the rest of time!" to " well, if they're not going to be my friends for long, why invest in them now? why even bother." ha. talk about extremes. what i realized later is that that was simply a ploy of the enemy to not want to be a good friend to others. God showed me that each of the relationships in our life has a purpose. There is a reason for each person that you come in contact with, especially those closest to you. and if they aren't going to be in your life forever, then why hold back now? you have a short time with these people and i want to make the most of that time!

i'm not saying to just spew all over them and don't think about what you say or what you reveal. But ask the Lord for guidance. Don't be afraid to talk to others and to love on them with Christ's love. It's important to do just that. who am i to stand in the way of God's plan for every person that i come in contact with? if i wait, i may miss an opportunity to show them God's love or learn from them. and i definitely don't want to do that.

As God places people in your life, remember that they are there for a reason. Whether you like them or not. Loving people is so important. It talks about how to love in 1 Corinthians 13 which has become scripture that i try to live by daily.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres. Love never fails."

At church on Sunday, Pastor Bruce was talking about love and what it is. One of the things that he found in a translation said that love is not irritable. Then at college group Jen and J challenged us to work on something this week that had to do with what love is. So i'm working on love not being irritable. I didn't realize how much that happens. Here's what i do, i repeat the phrase "love is not irritable" when i am irritated and pray that God will help me. J also gave us this article that we read together (J is Jen, my mentor's, husband, for those who don't know). The whole article was talking about people and how to talk to them about Christ. One of the kewlest things that it said was how we need to "talk together rather than talk past each other." Listening and loving go hand in hand. Love is PATIENT! Meaning, LISTEN and be PATIENT! yeah, and that's true for me just as much as the next guy.

God truly loves us because he gave us the ability to relate to one another and he is willing to give us His love to love others. How can we pass that up? I sure can't and i never want to.

Take a moment and look at the scripture and I challenge you to do this! Try loving people in a way that you know you aren't to great at. God will bless you for loving others.