Life Here and There

Just a review…

Truth #1: It’s Not About Me!
Truth #2: We Should Speak the Truth in Love

In America, we have an incredibly individualistic focus. We tend to fix our gaze on the achievements of the one, whereas ancient and more remote cultures tend to focus on the larger family unit. Because of our individual mindset, we miss out the depth of meaning in this phrase from Ephesians 4:25, “…we are members one of another.” So here is the third truth in our series of relationship principles for life…

We are responsible for each other.

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Here’s a link to the whole series.

Last week I wrote about the first of several relationship principles for life and that was It’s Not About Me. Today I’m moving into Ephesians 4 for the next several principles for relationships.

We should speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15)

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When I was a kid, I can remember having occasional “family meetings” in which Mom and Dad (who usually, at this point, had “had it”) would sit us down and lay down some “new rules.” Generally this mean no more eating in the living room or leaving half-drunk soda cans lying around. We made it as much of a challenge as possible for these rules to stick, and eventually life would return to normal. I know… we reap what we sow…

Here’s a major lesson that this illustrates. Rules are an ineffective means for managing relationships. In other words, you can’t force someone to obey, love, or respond sensitively by use of a rule. You can, however, convey principles that become a part of our core, that drive our moment-by-moment decisions. For example, setting a rule of “no smarting off to your brother” probably won’t last, but establishing the principle that “we respect our siblings” is a principle that can be learned and applied to a variety of situations over the long haul.

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