Relationships: Part I

Yep, you heard right, this post is about relationships! I will be splitting up this topic into two posts -- this first one is about human relationships in general and the next one will be about romantic relationships. LEZ GO!

During the past year, God has been revealing some pretty incredible and difficult truths about my human relationships, whether they be with my family, friends, or a significant other. In my opinion, one of the most beautiful ways in which God made us is our desire for relationships: to be in intimacy with others and to share life with them. This is so amazing to me, as I definitely see it in my own life. I have been so blessed to see how community and truly loving relationships add so much beauty to our life (praise God!).

But more than that, I have personally experienced how broken human relationships are. They can be filled with so much selfishness, pride, jealousy, betrayal, and disrespect. Even when I think of some of my most cherished relationships with my family and friends -- they are all affected by our brokenness as individuals. But in my life, the most pain has been caused not by the individual brokenness of myself and the other person, but rather the value and function of that relationship. I have been in the process of evaluating how I view my relationships, what I get out of them and what I put into them, and their role in my life.

My human relationships are so important to me, and often I put them before my school work, sleep, and a lot of times before my relationship with God. OH SNAP. But for real, this is a problem. While it is absolutely wonderful that I have so many people in my life that I care deeply about, it is not absolutely wonderful that I elevate my human relationships above my relationship with my Creator, my Redeemer, my God.

My prayer this week is to desire God: the only relationship that can truly satisfy me. I want to seek God first, and then everything and everyone else after that. There is NOTHING wrong with craving and desiring human relationships, as God created us to be relational beings, but ultimately He needs to be our rock and foundation.

So this might sound kind of abstract and impractical, but here are some tangible questions to think about:

• When something exciting happens to you, who do you talk to first? 
• When you are having a bad day and need a release, who do you talk to? 
• When you're feeling lonely or insecure about something, what do you do? 
• When you need a pick-me-up, who/what do you turn to?

I truly want all of these answers to be GOD. I understand that's really hard, but it's also awesome. There is nothing wrong talking to people about something exciting or telling them about your bad day, but when a dependence develops so that when you don't receive that acceptance and assurance from humans, you feel incomplete or unsatisfied, that's where things get unhealthy. 

God, help me to put You first and to seek You before anyone else. Cleanse and purify my human relationships, so that they may be a blessing to You. Help me seek You in my relationships, but before that, help me seek You alone first.