I said yesterday we were going to take a look at love today, but then I realized that I had forgotten to talk about the last of our 4 health areas. I wrote about spiritual mental and physical health, but we did not talk about relational health. Today we will do so.
Relational Health is different from the other three. The other three rely on you to make the right choices. Relational health relies on you and someone lese making the right choices.
The people we are in relationships with vary. We have business relationships and co-workers as well as family relationships and friend relationships. We also have the possibility of romantic relationships. All of these relationships require care and nurturing to some degree or another. Some are quite low on the care scale. A business relation can even be boiled down to what is written in a contract. You keep your side of the agreement and I’ll keep mine, after that it’s as easy as what is written or agreed on, on both sides.
Family, friends and romantic relationships take on a different type of structure. These we have to work at and be aware of almost all of the time if we want those relationships to grow. We have to be sensitive to needs and others and they have to be sensitive to ours. Communications lines have to be kept up and honest. Relationships not based on truth are not healthy relationships, they are very much a reflection on the lie they may be based on or the one being told. When a relationship loses its integrity it is no longer sound and both sides will begin to be distrustful of each other.
Eric Kohler of Valley Point Church talked last Sunday on the idea or the meaning of integrity. Eric said that “The word integrity comes from the word integer, An integer is a whole number, so integrity is about being whole. There can be no holes in it, no pieces missing. If a relationship is to be healthy it is to be filled with truth. If it is not, it is not whole.
I am no expert on relationships. I have lost friends that I cared about dearly over the years. I have hurt and been hurt by others and getting really close to someone else to let all of my guard down takes more courage than I can tell. Sometimes I miss the opportunity to let people know that I care, but I do try not to do that. And sometimes I get so wrapped up in myself that I forget about others all together. So let’s work together to be honest in our relationships. Let’s remember to take time with those we care about and invest in them. Let’s take no one for granted but remember them, taking a moment to jot down birthdays and important events in other lives.
The Bible says do unto other as you would have them do unto you. What does that really mean? It means to love on others the way you would like to be loved. This will take courage and endurance. It will take time and maybe even a little cash. But the investment we make in other people, will always give a return, even if it only the satisfaction that we know we did the right thing, that we fought for or cared for another individual. These are the things that will make the time that we have here on Earth more meaningful than anything else we can do.
