Quality in Relationships

I don’t know about you, but I really dislike when things break or don’t work correctly. It is frustrating to me when things are cheaply made and I am having to replace them too soon.  I had a tube tv well beyond when most people had traded theirs in for a flat screen. My thought was, it still worked, so why do I need to upgrade? Once I did upgrade though, the wow factor of the flat screen was not lost on me! I just think in this age that we are living in, with things being easier to throw out and start over rather than fix, I really appreciate quality. 

What is quality? I think it is something that takes awhile to make or produce. It isn’t something that can be thrown together hurriedly or haphazardly. It is something that is well thought out and well made. I think that can be sometimes difficult to obtain for us living in a time where people, including me, place a high value on convenience. Often our lives are so busy or cluttered with activities, we tend to settle for what is easiest over what has the most quality. Fast food, anyone? We are also inundated with information through all forms of media. Some of this information is well thought out and resonates with our spirits, but a lot of times that is just not the case. We have to be diligent to guard our hearts and minds and remember that the quantity of information we take in will most likely affect our quality of life. 

What does quality look like in our relationship with God? I think it can be summed up in the word time. A quality relationship with God takes time and effort just like other quality relationships in our lives. Make no mistake. God loves you unconditionally and at all times. His promise to you is that He will never leave you nor forsake you. However, the quality of your relationship with Him has to be deeper. You can not check in with Him once a week and expect to have a well made, long lasting relationship that bears good fruit. Will He abandon you? No. But you will also really not know Him. God longs to hear from you. He wants you to discuss your desires and secrets of your heart with Him. He absolutely delights in you. And when you don’t spend time with Him there are actually places in His heart that long to connect with your heart. God also longs to tell you the desires and secrets of His heart. But in order to hear them, you have to be willing to put the time and effort into a relationship with Him. 

Taking the time to read our Bible is so important because the enemy’s tactics have not changed since Adam and Eve. Satan will always come to us and twist what God has said. He will often say, did God really say? Or did He really mean what He said? If we have spent time continuously getting scripture in our minds, hearts and spirits then we can answer those deceptive questions with what God has said and promised to us. Also, if we take the time to pray and then listen to what God says to us, we will begin to understand our true identity in God. Satan absolutely hates man. We have what he can never have. The Bible says he comes to steal, kill and destroy. One of the ways he likes to do that is from the inside out. If he can make you believe you are less than you are or have no identity, then you will make destructive decisions for yourself and towards others. On the other hand God came to give us life and give it abundantly. He cares about every aspect of your life. He created you with the personality, sense of humor, talents, and gifts that you have. He wants you to know just how amazing you are. If you can truly get a hold of that truth, then it will change the way you see yourself and others around you. 

John 15:15 in The Passion Translation says “I have never called you servants, because a master doesn’t confide in his servants, and servants don’t always understand what the master is doing. But I call you my most intimate and cherished friends, for I reveal to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father.”  I like this scripture because it shows that God isn’t looking for more servants. If He was, He wouldn’t have created Adam and Eve and therefore us. If He wanted more servants, He would have created more angels. We were created in God’s image. We were created with the ability to commune with God, to get to know Him, to develop understandings about Him, and to share in His secrets. However, it is just like us in relationships. Most of us do not go up to strangers in a grocery story or even at church and divulge all of our secrets. We save those secrets for those closest to us. We take the time to develop a relationship with those people that we have learned to trust will be with us in the good and the bad. And over that time of learning to trust those friends, the secrets and the deeper parts of us naturally flow out. 

I believe it is the same with God. He has a desire for each of us to know Him intimately, and He created us with a desire to know God intimately. But it takes time, perseverance and trust to develop quality in that relationship. I believe that is for our protection. If we did not take the time to get to know God, we would not understand or know what to do with the things He told us. We need to have the character and maturity to know when to share what God has shown us and when to keep it to ourselves. Remember, friend, God is always for us never against us. He longs to have a quality relationship with you. The invitation is there. Will you accept? 

Please enjoy these other posts about Quality.

Mom Guilt: The Secret to Getting Past It https://www.ashleyolivine.com/mom-guilt/

Quality Time http://rootedunrooted.com/blog/quality-time