"Jesus answered 'Love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This and the first and most important command. And the second command is like the first: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. All the law and and the writings of the prophets depend on these two commands." -Matthew 22:37-40
It is apparent throughout all of God's word that he wants us to have relationships. He wants us to love one another whether we want to or not. It is hard to love your enemies, however, I have found in the past few years that loving your "enemies" creates a more positive flow in your relationship or acquaintance with that person. To me, that is carrying God's undconditional love to daily life and I think that is something people have shyed away from.
It has never been too important to me to choose the people I surround myself with based on their faith. I have been through a lot in the past year and that has caused me to hang around people who share the love of God that I have, with me. People who pray for me and I can talk to about it, and it has truly affected my life.
There are three areas I believe we as believers can create faithful relationships in to truly focus our lives on the faith and Lord that we worship:
Family
Friends
Relationships
Now obviously, you cannot pick your family, however, each person in your family has an influence on all of the others. Going to church on sundays, I used to sit by my friends or the youth group. Recently I began sitting next to my parents and not only has it made me pay attention more during the sermon, but it creates this understanding within our family that we have never had before. Just sitting next to my parents while worshipping and listening to the word being taught to us has opened so many doors in our relationship. We talk about the bible and the stories and interpretting things from all of it. We can talk about the things going on in our lives and how God is using those events to shape us and bring us closer to him. It's a very cool dynamic that I cannot believe we never had before but it makes sense.
I highly encourage that if you do not have that sense of faith between you and your family members, just read a bible story together once a week or start praying more than your usual grace at dinner time. The people you call your family are the ones you will always run to in life and it is important to have that understanding between all of you.
Never, and I mean NEVER have I put my faith as a priority in choosing my group of friends. I have recently started attending Club 121, the christian group at my school and I do not think I have ever fit in and been so accepted into a group of people in my life. I felt a little nervous going in to my first meeting by myself with out anyone with me but by the end of that first morning, I knew I had made new friends with people I truly wanted to be around. The girls in my small group that day were ones I know I can go to and pray with or ask to pray for me. I will certainly be there for them and I cannot think of a better explanation than our love for Jesus Christ and our passion to serve him and let other kids our age see what great things he can do. I've see posts on facebook and twitter recently stating that a mutual hatred of one person brings two people together. I cannot even believe it when I see it but all I can think is "why can't the love of 5 other people bring you together instead?" The love of God has brought me to some girls and guys in my life that I would not have connected with otherwise and that scares me.
Putting my faith in my friendships is something I will definitely be making sure I do from now on throughout the rest of my life. I believe that spending my time with people who share a lifestyle so important as my faith with me is the most important thing I can do for myself.
I am not sure where God is going to take me in life or what I will be doing just next year but one thing is for sure: I will never settle for less than a man who has accepted Jesus Christ into his life. Before now, having a boyfriend who shares social values or political values has always been important to me. But dating someone who does share the same faith as me is one of the most important things in my eyes. Even just being in a high school relationship, it has completely changed the way I see life. How do I want to spend the rest of my life? This can go back to both the family and friends ideas. Being friends is always a great start to a relationship and as long as you do have that shared belief between your friends, your relationships will be just as successful. As I get older and begin to plan out ideas for my future, I realize that I want to get married and raise a family and I want to base all of that on the word and bring my family up with the lifestyle of a follower of christ and having a partner who believes that as well as or more than I do is the #1 key in my book.
These three areas are such huge parts of our lives. I have thought about this post for quite a while and believe that I have given all the ideas I can. Changing these three areas of my life have not only brought me closer to God, but to the important people in my life and have made me an overall happier person. Share your faith with the people you love and the love can only continue to grow.
