3 Vital Relationships

I’ve come to figure out that there are three relationships that matter the most in your life and are vital for you to be whole.  I’d like to refer to what Jesus said about the ten commandments.

The ten commandments are summed up by Jesus as He replied to the religious leaders of His day.  Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Mat 23:34-40.  From what He said the three relationships mentioned are with God, self and others.  Let me get into each of them a little bit.

Your relationship with God.  How you relate with God affects how you relate with other human beings.  God is patient with us and gives us time to find our way back to Him.  It’s vital for you to have a good and loving relationship with God. To have such a relationship you need to “confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” Rm 10: 5-13.  Then God will make you whole and whatever else you may be looking for in others to fulfill, He will satisfy you completely, you will not need to go looking elsewhere.

Your relationship with yourself.  How you relate with yourself affects how you relate with others and how you are viewed by others.  Yourself relationship reflects on others and attracts others like you.  So if you don’t like yourself you will attract people who generally don’t like you.  Its not as simple but there is a direct relation to how you will be treated by others.  It’s vital to sort out the relationship with yourself in order to have a healthy relationship with yourself. Take note that;

Self love has nothing to do with pride and arrogance.  One is respectful and courteous.  One is considerate, apologetic, tactful and gracious.

Self love is a unique blend where a person is confident and humble.  Meek and modest, not self absorbed, one is able to think of and accommodate others without looking for accolades and self importance.  This is only achieved by having a relationship with God.

Your relationship with others.  This is a culmination of how you relate with God and how you relate with yourself. That is how you will relate with others.  When you reflect and do some soul searching you will find out that; How you relate as a human being in the strangest of ways is determined by how you relate to God and to yourself.  Loving others will be an overflow from loving God and loving yourself.

So in conclusion the major relationships in your life are the one you have with God and the one you have with yourself.  The one with others is as vital and is derived from the two.  Many factors contribute to how you relate with God, yourself & others.  Hence the need for you to take the time to explore them and figure them out, in order to have a healthy relationship with God, Yourself and others.

Nyakionakio

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENTS

I watched the movie forever strong and they had one overall rule to live by, ‘don’t do anything to embarrass myself, my team or my family’. I added to it a little bit to say; I will not do anything to embarrass my God, myself, my team and my family. I believe we all need a rule to live by mine is below.

When Jesus was asked about the first commandment, He said the greatest commandments are these two. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength & Love your neighbour as yourself. Mk 12: 29 -31

I have always wondered why we are told just to love our neighbour & not ourselves. We breakdown the commands into two Love God and Love your neighbour; but these commands represent three parties and not two as mostly perceived. It says Love your neighbour as yourself, not more than yourself and not less than yourself. This does not mean one is to be selfish and just thinking of themselves, neither does it mean to neglect yourself. I believe it means one is self-aware.

If you Love God with your whole self then you become self-aware and Love yourself. Since God is Love then you embody Love and you become Love to yourself. When you cannot Love yourself then it is difficult for you to love others. I guess this is where they got the saying God helps those who help themselves.

You need to love yourself and the only way to Love and face yourself is by Loving and facing God. You can try to love others by helping them, doing good deeds and being kind but that is not love, those are just good deeds.

True Love for others emanates from True Love of God and Self.
Love God, Love yourself, Love others that’s God’s Formula.

Like Paul told the husband to love His wife like himself, Eph 5:33 meaning the husband should love himself first, in order to be able to love his wife, but for him to do that he needs to love God first, then himself then he will be able to Love his wife.

When you can’t Love God, you are not able to Love yourself or others. These commands are a formula with three key ingredients, where all three ingredients need to be present for it to work, without all three ingredients mixed in, it’s a form of Love but not True Love. It’s Love without God’s power.

Nyakionakio