Building Relationships.

As a young girl I was taught to summarise the word Joy as “Jesus first, Others next and Yourself last”. Emphasis was put on the fact that if I followed that principle, then I would be assured of joy in my life. With time as I started not only to engage my brain more but also to relate more with people, I couldn't help but think what a joke the whole "joy" concept was. Time has taught me that putting others before you is easy if they are going out of their way to make you happy. But what happens if all you are getting is hurt and rejection from those you have put first at all costs? The truth is whether I want it or not, you and I need people to live life with. Needless to say, it is a continuous struggle if we are to put others no matter what before ourselves.

However why not start just by involving people in our lives? After all our lives are enhanced by the relationships we have. I am sure you have had one of those days where a kind word, hug or kiss from a special loved one and in some cases a stranger has made a difference to an otherwise gloomy day. I believe human beings are relational in nature. The world has put it simply as "No man is an Island", and I couldn't agree more. In addition, relationships are very vital to the quality of life that we have.

Growing up in a not so small family, I had those moments where I just needed some time to myself and as a teenager; I asked one of my married friends if they ever had that urge to have space away from their spouse. ‘Of course’, was the reply as naturally we all need that one to one time when we can reflect without any background noise although however, that is not to say that people aren't important for if we can't get along with people, then there's a ceiling on our lives. A better way of looking at it is how the Ten Commandments are summed up. The first to the fifth of the laws relate to our relationship with God while the sixth to the tenth, our relationship with other people.

Every one of us was created to have a relationship with God and a relationship with other people. If you thought you could do without people, there's no way out since relating to both our creator and fellow man is the most important thing we can do. Someone else said that in order to be happy in life, we just have to spend time with the people we love. Put in another way, we have to place value on the people we live with and in the end everyone will be happy.