Posts Tagged 'relationships'

As a result of last Sunday’s teaching time, I have had a few people ask me about the section of Ephesians that I re-wrote by exchanging/inserting the term “future spouse”.  It was a pretty effective way of making the Biblical text immediately applicable to a pre-marriage (and marriage) relationship.  So, here it is again:

Be completely humble and gentle with your future spouse; be patient, bearing with him/her in love.

Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to and about your future spouse.

In your anger do not sin against your future spouse: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry with your future spouse, and do not give the devil a foothold.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth toward your future spouse, but only what is helpful for building him/her up according to his/her needs.

Looking ahead to the rest of the new year that just started (yippee!) … how do you plan to stay connected with friends, colleagues, news, etc?  With so many relationships to manage in so many different contexts, how do you (and how do I)  keep up to date?

Personally, I find myself using email, Facebook, podcasts (video) and news sites most frequently.  Each one has advantages and disadvantages, but using them together seems to be relatively effective at nurturing existing relationships, and finding/forming new ones.  It is tough to stay connected with everyone, though, isn’t it?

With so many “relationships”, it is often hard to invest enough energy into the important ones.  If there is a flaw in the new world of online social networking (and yes, there just might be a flaw or two!), it is that managing  lots of superficial relationships is a lot easier than investing in a few deep relationships.  When we live behind a screen, whether on our desk or in our hand, it seems that we often drift away from the rich and transparent friendships that we each need.

So how is this for a good January challenge – send a friend a message with a pen and paper (remember those?) rather than a few keystrokes. 

How about you?  How to you plan to stay connected in 2009?

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