【Day3】Various Relationships I
God created man to live a community life. Man is a social creature, not an isolated one. Every person needs to have relationships with others and build relationships. Some children grow up to be good at dealing with others; but others tend to grow up to be withdrawn. Even if they are withdrawn, help them and encourage them to build relationships with others. In a community life, they can be paired and built up in the body of Christ and preach the gospel to the people around them. God wants a community life to be manifested.
While building relationships is important, learning how to maintain relationships is just as important. If a relationship breaks down, there is a disagreement, and a difficult situation arises so you also have to learn how to repair the relationship. There are three important aspects of relationships: building, maintaining, and repairing.
Take the time to build loving relationships. Relationships require two elements to build: one is love and the other is communication. In other words, you cannot build a relationship without love, or without communication. Love and communication are the “must” factors to build relationships. It takes time to cultivate loving relationships and build communicative relationships. Love and communication are also important factors in maintaining a relationship.
In addition to love and communication, relationships need to be maintained with the help of other relevant virtues. For example, maintaining the proper order of respect between children and their elders, showing respect, courtesy and care are all factors in building and maintaining relationships. Also, cultivating a grateful heart in children makes it much easier for them to have good relationships at all ages.
Sometimes relationships encounter problems, difficulties, and troubles. Therefore, it is necessary to learn to repair relationships, learn to apologize, be tolerant, and to forgive.
Parents should help their children learn to build relationships, maintain relationships, and repair relationships so that they can cultivate and handle those relationships. This will help lead them into a relationship with God. To build a relationship with God is to seek to know Him and have a loving relationship with Him. To maintain a relationship with God is to live in fellowship with Him. Sometimes our relationship with God can go wrong, can be broken up, or lose the fellowship. This must be repaired with repentance, confession of sins, and dealing with the offense toward God in our conscience.
In fact, all human society needs the building up of relationships among people. The whole calling of God is to build up relationships between people and Himself With these basic understandings. We are going to look at three relationships that children must face and touch. The first is the family, the second is the church, and the third is society.
The first level of family relationships are between parents, children and their siblings. Parents must teach their children that they should understand and believe that their parents love them and God loves them even more. Parents also tell children over and over again that those who love them the most and the most trustworthy ones are the families. No matter what problems they encounter, they should always go to their parents for communication.
The second level of family relationships are grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins.
Raising children is the responsibility of parents, not grandparents. Therefore, parents must take the responsibility of raising the children. Grandparents are only available to help. The future of the child, the sovereignty and decisions must be in the hands of the parents. Grandparents should only make suggestions and pray for future generations, but not take full charge and make decisions.
In family relations, elders and children should be in order. The elders are to be loved, respected and obeyed. The younger ones and their peers are to be loved, cared for and looked after. Recognize that God created an extended family—the church. This new man is global, earth wide and living on the whole earth and it can be seen in the local churches.
We are all relatives of God’s family, despite our different cultural backgrounds, religious backgrounds, education levels, and social classes. We share a common faith: we believe in God, we believe in the Lord Jesus, who redeemed us, bought us with a great price, and regenerated us. We believe in the Bible, which is the word of God. This is what we should see and be our vision.
What is practical exercise and practice? We should find companions in the church to pray, read the Bible, study, play sports, and have activities with. We should find young people to serve in our shepherding care, to become a serving person. We can enjoy all the riches of God’s family, and also do our best to serve according to our measure. Strive to learn not to be self-centered, arrogant, selfish, self-absorbed, or self-pitying.
When brothers and sisters are all in life, love, the Spirit and the word of the Lord, we are connected and united together, this is the building. Serving according to God can help others to build relationships in church life.
