Quotes about Relationship

A child who grows up with the realization that his parents are lovers has a wonderful basis of stability.6

Time with God will open up His ways. Reading books won't do it. Reading theology won't do it. Studying the creation won't do it. Going to church won't do it. Listening to religious music won't do it. Listening to great preaching won't do it. Even worshiping through hymns and songs won't do it.

I cannot imagine a greater motivation to pray than that God enjoys having me in His presence. He enjoys my company. He delights in listening to me! He doesn't get bored with my repeated requests. He doesn't moralize me if I get it wrong in what I ask for. He doesn't laugh at me if I put out silly, even impertinent, requests. He never makes me feel stupid. There is no rejection, only total acceptance.

God, what is going on? Why are You leaving me with the one man who has the power to break me?

That was something, wasn't it? Trust was a good place to start. Especially after the kind of betrayal she'd been through. It made him want to prove he was the kind of man she deserved. The kind of man who'd love her for better or worse. The kind who was faithful and true.

Sometimes family isn't the situation you're born into but the people who've chosen to love you along the way.

Only people can relate to JHWH, the animals, the stars they are with Elohim. We are with JHWH and Elohim. We are also with that God who creates the world., not just the personal God. Adonai (i.e., JHWH) is the God of the characteristic of mercy and compassion, and Elohim is the God whose characteristic is justice. And you need BOTH for the world to function.

The decision that the man was to marry proceeded from God, not from the man.

We are never intended by God to stop short at an experience, a doctrine, a revelation, or a blessing. Thank God for every one of those things that we receive, but we cannot rest in them. Each one of them, in a sense, is somewhat impersonal and impermanent. What we need, in the last resort, is a person. And every true doctrine or revelation we receive will always lead us in the end to the person of God Himself.

In other words, God is working out what we have committed to Him. It is the continuing attitude of trust on our part that keeps the channel open through which God is able to intervene in our lives and work out what needs to be done. But if we abandon our trust, we close off the channel and hinder the completion of what God has begun to do for us.

A very important but difficult piece of renewing relationships is accepting responsibility for our part in any conflict. If we have a relationship in need of repair, we must remember that the wrong is not usually all on one side, and we are more easily able to restore relations when we look at our contribution to a conflict.

Once you have been able to forgive, the final step is to either renew or release the relationship you have with the one who has harmed you. Indeed, even if you never speak to the person again, even if you never see them again, even if they are dead, they live on in ways that affect your life profoundly.