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Relationships Based on Love

by Angela Willingham  
5/28/2009 / Relationships

Relationships! Relationships! Relationships!

Why are relationships so difficult?

Love! Love! Love!
Respect! Respect! Respect!
Communication! Communication! Communication!

Love, Respect and Communication are all key components necessary for every good relationship. If you were to give all of your relationships a check up right now, what would you find? Are any of the key components missing? Is love evidenced in your relationships as identified in the Message bible, 1 Corinthians 13:4-13:
3 -7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8 -10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
If I am honest I must admit that sometimes I do keep track of wrongs. I have not done it intentionally, but isn't that what I do when I remind you that you missed my birthday, instead of accepting your apology and letting it go? Is that my maturity speaking or my childishness, the thing that was supposed to be left behind when I grew up? Wow, I thought I had it together and then God showed me what He has been trying to show me for a long time, to love enough to be patient, kind, understanding and forgiving. My joking about wrongs that were done to me keeps them alive in my head and heart and also in the head and heart of the one I thought I was wronged by.

Maybe I am the only one that has gotten this love thing wrong on occasion, but sometimes, I feel like giving up on my relationships and if I am honest, I have threatened to give up, tried to give up and even took a short sabbatical, until I was chastised by my heavenly Father and His servants enough to know I had to go back to work. How does the person I exhibited this behavior now feel? Can they be secure in my love for them? Can they trust that love not to give up on them when things get difficult? Can they trust that I will be there for them when they need me or are they walking on eggshells waiting for the time when I really will walk away? Sometimes it is because I have tried to deal with my relationships on my own rather than letting God do it.

Some of you may be thinking that this is about a male/female relationship, a husband/wife relationship or a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, but let me assure you that we all have more relationships than just the ones we have with the opposite sex. Check all of your relationships. Give every one of them the love test as described in 1 Corinthians 13 and see how they score. Are there any relationships that you need to work to fix? Is there anyone you need to apologize to even if they do not know what is going on?

How do I resolve this immature love relationship? How do I fix the mess ups? How do I undo any damage I have done not only to myself, but to someone else? I do it by first asking God to forgive me and then asking the people I have done it to for their forgiveness.

Forgive me God.

Most of my friends would say, no big deal, don't worry about it. I know you were just teasing, etc. Knowing what they will say does not rule out my need to ask for their forgiveness. I must ask for their forgiveness because God has revealed it to me. I have to do it as part of my getting right with Him. It is part of my obedience.

Trust God with all of your relationships. Start by building a loving relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ!!!

Scripture-
1 Corinthians 13:4-8:
4Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. 6It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8Love will last forever,

Real mature love does last forever, does bear all wrongs and it is patient.

Angela Willingham, CEO New Beginnings Holistic Fitness Ministries, Inc.
www.mynewtemple.org
Copyright New Beginnings Holistic Fitness Ministries, Inc.

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