Day 026: What Relationships Do You Treasure?
From the beginning, were created for relationship. The Lord let Adam see the variety of beasts He created before giving Eve to Adam in part so Adam could realize the treasure woman is to him. The Lord said, “For it is not good for man to be alone.”
Cutting people off from one another is a trick of demons. It is not of God. It is part of what made the covid lockdowns and isolations so insidiously evil. Humanity is made for relationship. We need partners to share life’s hardships and joys. We crave interaction and touch. This can come from a parent, spouse, child, sibling, battle buddy, or trusted friend. We need sounding boards, trusted advisors to give course corrections and positive encouragement, and physical affection that surpasses even the beauty of sex.
Anytime those relationships are destroyed you know evil is at work. This often happens with man’s misuse of free will, but it often happens in subtle unconscious ways as well.
Who and what we give our attention to, makes a difference in our relationships. The Bible tells us, “For where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.” (Matt 6:21). If we consider how love works, we know that when we are in love, we give our time and effort to the one we love. We enjoy doing things for that person, spending time with that person, and getting to know that person. After a while though, we can be tempted to take our loved one for granted or we start seeing flaws in this person and we think we know all the good there is to know about this person as we discover some of their not as lovable traits.
Our attention is sidetracked and we find other ways to fill our time. We find other things or people to love.
Most would scoff at being accused of loving their jobs, or social media, or daily workouts or any number of things more than loved ones, but when we consider the amount of time and attention these things take, we might understand where those concerns come from.
We crave relationships, but so often we do things to sabotage the very thing we crave most. We get a dopamine hit from doing what we enjoy and what comes easily rather than working to build trust and love and touch.
This is especially true when we consider our relationship with the Lord. We are created in His image and likeness. From that we can gather, He also craves relationship, conversation, trust, love, and touch from us. What’s more is that we crave that from Him as well. It’s how we are designed whether we admit it or not.
Relationships always take time over time. They are not a once and done deal. They must be worked on with a presupposition of good, as Saint Ignatius would say. Instead of turning to false gods of wealth, technology, and self, we must lead our hearts to what we treasure.
If you want better relationships, sit down and prioritize your desires. List the people you most want to grow close to. Then quietly keep track of the time you spend building relationship with them compared to time you spend bonding to false gods. We all have those false gods. We are all tempted. We are also wall capable of defeating distraction and forming lasting relationships. Instead of waiting for those relationships to magically happen or for loved ones to come to you, be conscientious about your own behavior and proactive about making them happen.
Be sure to include the Lord on your list!
God Bless…
Gratitude Journal – May 6, 2023
Thank You Lord for…
- Getting my post done this morning.
- Coming out to see S and R sitting in my coach.
- shooting in the back
- A ride by myself to make ohone calls
- going to L’s First Holy Communion party
- the gorgeous day!!!
- how my boys love each other.
- C’s questions.
- bathrooms!
- Family