The Most Basic Ingredient

     I remember trying to make cookies or cake when I was younger.  My mom made it look so easy.  Why shouldn’t I be able to do it too?  Yet, my abilities produced things that looked and tasted like bricks or charcoal.  Somehow I forgot a needed ingredient - or maybe I added too much of something.

     Could this be the reason for so much turmoil in many relationships?  One or both partners forgetting (or neglecting) to provide a necessary ingredient to their marriage such as patience, or forgiveness, or spending time together.  Or, worse, one or both being unwilling to bring in the attitudes that help people grow together.

     And there is one ingredient that will help make all relationships successful.  The Bible is full of examples of this all-powerful element.  If it is added daily and not taken for granted, people bond and grow and mature.  The most basic ingredient that all relationships need is God.

     The spiritual outlook of each person involved in a relationship cannot be discounted.  As an individual grows in his/her relationship with the Father, all of the other relationships they are blessed with grow also.  But the opposite is true too.  If someone drifts farther away from God, most, if not all of his/her relationships will suffer.

     Is there someone in your life that you’re having a truly difficult time with?  Take a look at where you are spiritually in your walk with God.  Or try to see where the other person is in their spiritual life.  Chances are good that one or both of you needs to return to Him and resolve some inner troubles first.  Then you will have the strength to handle the other conflicts that crop up in this life. 

     Jesus actually said it better: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).

Doug