If I asked you “Who matters most to you” what would you say? Your spouse? Your children? Your parents? Your friends?
Do they know it? Do you show it?
Sometimes we live as if our relationships don’t matter today because those people who matter most to us are always going to be there and we can take time to show them that we care sometime in the near future but today we need to get extra hours in at work. Or we have Monday night football to watch.
Why do we wait until people are dead to send them flowers? Why don’t we compliment others while they are alive instead of waiting to tell others how great someone was during a eulogy?
It seems that we SAY we value our relationships but we don’t take the time or energy to invest in them fully. Our busy lives and booked schedules take priority over our valued relationships and we end up taking for granted those that we love the most. But people are relational. People need to know that they are loved and appreciated.
Sometimes our spouse can become just a person with whom we share our house; someone who pays the bills and cooks dinner or someone who mows the lawn and keeps up on repairs of the house. Our children become our “schedules” and trophies that we take places to show off. Our friends become people that we go to when we need someone to vent to or need a pat on the back.
Don’t take your relationships for granted. Jesus told the disciples in John 13:34 to “love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Jesus’s love was the greatest love of all time because He gave up His life for us. He showed those He loved how much He loved them with the ultimate sacrifice. He did not take relationships for granted. He worked on them. He is in the relationship business. He wants a relationship with each of us and will work day and night to get that relationship and keep it strong.
What can we do today to give our relationships strength? Think about your answer to the question above about “who matters most to you”. Now think about one thing you can do today to show the person “who matters most” to you how much you love them. Then ask that question every day for the next week and ACT ON IT.
If you knew YOU only had a few days to live or the person who matters most to you only had a few days to live, what would you want that person to know? Tell them. Show them.
Relationships are important in our lives. Let’s not take them for granted. We have a lot of everyday business to get done, but let’s focus on our “relationship business”. It has the most return on investment!
