A chance to reconnect

They invented hugs to let people know you love them without saying anything. (Bil Keane)

Forget about the wrong things people do to you. Don’t try to get even. Love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18)

As we move on with our 'new year', perhaps it would be good to rekindle a few relationships that have grown a bit too cool over the past year. It begins with the one we have with our heavenly Father first, then it flows outward. As we recommit to spending time with Jesus each day, getting into his word, and allowing him to guide our path, we need to prayerfully consider other relationships that may need a little 'uplift'. If we haven't invested ourselves deeply, it could be that God is asking us to do so this year. I know some may feel they are being prompted to begin anew with relationships that need a bit more of their attentiveness. It may have become easy to think 'time spent together' is 'building' a relationship, but it is more than 'time' a relationship needs. It requires attentiveness!

As we become attentive within a relationship, it is quite possible we will see things others 'do wrong' or have done without 'total awareness'. It is time to forgive those things and remove the 'distance' these things have probably created in the relationship. The distance has actually made it possible to merely 'spend time' together but still be very disconnected and aloof from each other in the process. As long as that distance remains, intimacy will not be regained. Maybe it is time for us to 'reinvest' a little more of ourselves into the relationship and a little less 'activity'. It is possible the 'activity' has become a substitute for truthful sharing of emotions, meaningful connection with each other, and the ability to be entirely transparent with each other. If so, today may be the beginning of a new focus - each other.

Parents and children can exist in the same room - each scrolling their phones, talking occasionally about something trivial, and be totally disconnected. Coworkers can be engaged in the same project but be devoid of any real connectedness with the others they are working alongside. Friends can meet for coffee and still walk away with things unsaid, knowing they have some hurts in their life held close to the breast, and feel like they are all alone in the battle. Today is a new day - a chance to reconnect - to lose a few of the 'habits' that have driven us apart and establish some new ones that will draw us closer together. Just sayin!