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By Bob Simpson, BCM/D Assoc. Executive Director and BaptistLIFE Editor
As I write this, I am sitting in an airport waiting to return home from a weekend celebrating the second birthday of one of my granddaughters. Her name is Stella. (Lorraine and I have six grandchildren – three boys and three girls). And, our oldest granddaughter, Brittni also just celebrated her 15th birthday within the past week. (How could she be 15 already? I still remember when she was Stella’s age. Yes, they do grow up so fast).
These two occasions have got me thinking about what’s most important in life. Sometimes when we are in the trenches of everyday living, we lose sight of the things that really matter. The perspective I have gotten this weekend is that there is nothing more important than our relationships. That’s certainly true from the spiritual right through to the familial.
Now having said that, I am certainly not naïve as to how difficult the growing of quality relationships can be. Some relationships just work easily. (Grandchildren are included in this category.) Others take more work and increased effort. Some, for reasons that often escape us, just require lots of work, effort, intentionality and mega doses of grace. And in my life, I have even experienced some relationships that, even with my best intentions, were dead on arrival. They required more than I could give. Any relationship that is only one-sided is certainly doomed from the start.
What I am saying is that through all the intricacies of the relationships of our lives, there is one common denominator: they are all a work in progress. They are all at various stages of maturity. They all require the best that is in us to succeed. Even our most important relationship of all with our Heavenly Father requires us to hang in there during the various stages of our lives. Of course, the only difference with Him is that He is so patient, faithful and forgiving with us. His perspective is perfect.
Every now and then I get a wonderful glimpse of His perspective on how to maintain high quality in our relationships. This past weekend with Stella was one of them.