Building Relationships

A person may ask what is the most important word in our lagauage.  A Romantic might whisper, ‘love’. A politician might bellow, ‘votes’. A banker may staunchly say, ‘money’.  Each one has a reason for their word, but I would venture to say the most important word in our language is ‘relationship’. Every one of us is in the school of relationships.

One of the biggest revelations in my life was when I realized how intentional I have to be in relationships.  Karen and I have four sons & daughter-in-laws and numerous grand children and I have come to understand how purposeful and intentional I have to be to build relationships with them.  I have found that I have to be intentional to get into their lives. If I do not, I will know them and I will intersect in life with them but I will not have the influence with them that I really desire.

A couple of summers ago the whole clan went to the beach. We staked out a nice place for the chairs and set up the umbrellas. Then some of us grabbed our boogie boards and out we headed to the water. It was so awesome for all of us to just enjoy the little swells, talking and chatting in the sun. We probably floated around out there about ten minutes when one of us looked up and said, ‘Where are the chairs and umbrellas?  We had floated down away from our site and it took forever to swim and paddle back to our stuff because the current was so strong against us. 

 I thought to myself, "Wow, this is a picture of my life isn’t it God"?  Because unless I’m intentional, the current of culture, of life, of the busyness of life, will carry me away from where I want to be.  It was nice to relax, but in reality, life doesn’t allow us to relax without some effect on us.  If I do nothing, I’m gone, I’m down stream, down the strand, I’ve drifted away from my site.  If I do nothing for a day or a week in my relationships, then I’ve drifted.  I’m not in the same place anymore. It takes consciously, intentionally choosing those relationships every day. That has been a big surprise yet also an amazing help once I figured it out. Now, I can put it into practice.  

If you want to have a better relationship with God you have to be intentional. If you want to get through to your wife, kids, husband, children, etc, you need to not just "be there", but be intentional and purposely get to know them.  Don’t try to tell them how to live, or how their music stinks or how to whatever......try to intentionally find what and who they are and then intentionally get to know them, build a relationship with them. Great relationships are based on effort - they don’t just happen.