we are not created to be alone
Human beings are social creatures. We all know that. Deeper than simply spending time or doing hobbies together, we truly need someone to connect with our souls. We long to be known by another person - our parents, our siblings, friends, spouses, people in our community.
'Every baby comes into the world looking for someone who is looking for him or her. To have a conscious, embodied awareness of being known by God is necessary feature of the life of loving God, and our awareness of being known by God is measured by the degree to which we are known by each other.' The Soul of Desire - Curt Thompson, MD. We are created (after God's image) with capacity to love like how the Triune God has loved one another from eternity to eternity.
Community means much more than companionship. Community is designed as means for building up one another in love. Dealing with imperfect (naturally sinful) people isn't always delightful. To the point of deeper connection among individuals, we'll soon see other's weaknesses and sins, and vice versa. Many people have chosen to draw a clear line in relationship with others so each person remains in his/her own territory and peace could be kept. This, however, is more of an act of defensiveness rather than loving your neighbors. Self-protective measure limits our potential for growth. Consider the time you are working out your muscle as an example. Should you stop training your muscle before it begins to feel sore, you'll never enlarge the capacity of your muscle. It will remain the same old. But, as you continue pushing against discomfort, you'll find it gets stronger over time - in this case, growth happens. Therefore, if you wonder why the relationships you have aren't that great, go back and check have you repeatedly limiting yourself in doing more, inconveniencing yourself for other, share with others' emotional hurt and difficulties, avoid committing some time to catch up regularly, or building up some kind of wall so people can't come over closer and deeper to you.
Great relationships are gifts and they take commitment and effort to maintain. Each person takes part in it to work out disagreements or conflicts, celebrate others' good times, mourn and cry together at heartbreaking times, encourage when others are down, call others out when they do something wrong, ask for forgiveness when you hurt others and grant forgiveness though you can't forget. Over all these experiences and staying together, the relationship grow stronger because you know one another more truly, not over your brain, but in your heart also.
'Every baby comes into the world looking for someone who is looking for him or her. To have a conscious, embodied awareness of being known by God is necessary feature of the life of loving God, and our awareness of being known by God is measured by the degree to which we are known by each other.' The Soul of Desire - Curt Thompson, MD. We are created (after God's image) with capacity to love like how the Triune God has loved one another from eternity to eternity.
Community means much more than companionship. Community is designed as means for building up one another in love. Dealing with imperfect (naturally sinful) people isn't always delightful. To the point of deeper connection among individuals, we'll soon see other's weaknesses and sins, and vice versa. Many people have chosen to draw a clear line in relationship with others so each person remains in his/her own territory and peace could be kept. This, however, is more of an act of defensiveness rather than loving your neighbors. Self-protective measure limits our potential for growth. Consider the time you are working out your muscle as an example. Should you stop training your muscle before it begins to feel sore, you'll never enlarge the capacity of your muscle. It will remain the same old. But, as you continue pushing against discomfort, you'll find it gets stronger over time - in this case, growth happens. Therefore, if you wonder why the relationships you have aren't that great, go back and check have you repeatedly limiting yourself in doing more, inconveniencing yourself for other, share with others' emotional hurt and difficulties, avoid committing some time to catch up regularly, or building up some kind of wall so people can't come over closer and deeper to you.
Great relationships are gifts and they take commitment and effort to maintain. Each person takes part in it to work out disagreements or conflicts, celebrate others' good times, mourn and cry together at heartbreaking times, encourage when others are down, call others out when they do something wrong, ask for forgiveness when you hurt others and grant forgiveness though you can't forget. Over all these experiences and staying together, the relationship grow stronger because you know one another more truly, not over your brain, but in your heart also.