A "season" to Remember, Reconcile, and Repeat

In this season of giving, we have an opportunity to remember, reconcile, and repeat. In the course book Loving Others couples are challenged to do just that for a lifetime. Why? It’s one way we build, maintain, restore, and renew relationships time and again.

Remembering entails realizing how we intentionally build relationships. Do you remember making first friends? Although I don’t remember exactly when or how I made friends in elementary through high school, those friendships and their history are something I remember. Maybe we remember more about earlier friendships because as children we more readily let go of the small things in life and kept trying to build a relationship, rather than holding onto the baggage of life, and grudges in life, that can sometimes hinder loving others unconditionally.

Reconciling as a child somehow seemed simpler. Children, although naively, think and live in the moment, not necessarily realizing risks or weighing consequences. As adults we sometimes forget to live in and for the moment by letting go of things in the past so that we can keep moving toward a new normal. In the course, Reconciling Through Love one of the exercises is called Promises of the Future, subtitle "bridges of love". In the exercise participants are encouraged to look toward the future while leaving the past behind. It is out of our love, of self, and those who love us, that we choose to reconcile the past in order to keep living at our best in the future.

Repeating positive behaviors and decisions impacts our relationships over time. We have all experienced both success and failures in relationships at some point in life. What we focus on after those failures and successes, in part, influences present and future relationships. We succeed throughout a lifetime as we continue to repeat and make choices that bring about a positive end result. In relationships this translates to repeating things that continue to build, maintain, and restore personal relationships, time and again. Connections with others can happen instantly. Relationships form over time. Relationships are also maintained better as we continue to learn and grow, individually and together, within our relationships.

Social media is a great way to connect with people. It is an avenue that is available to us on a level that has never been possible in previous generations. Connecting through social media is the easy part, further establishing, and maintaining relationships through this avenue becomes the challenge. Sustainable, Real Life Relationships, require commitment. Join us this next month as we further look at how when we remember, repeat, and reconcile relationships within our “personal” community one relationship at a time.