Hi there! Recently, I’ve been thinking about relationships and commitments, and all the ‘flips and flops’ in between.
How many of us can truly ‘boast’ of being in COMMITTED relationships, whether with God, or with fellow human beings? We’ve failed so many times at hitting the right standards that we’ve lowered them, and somehow found justifications for our actions, even when they hurt us deeply.
Here’s the thing! I’ll wager that we don’t always get into relationships to fail. No one I know does that. We get into relationships hoping to do amazing things together. We hope to be better, to be happier; but most times, we FAIL.
With the advent of digital media, relationship ‘fails’ have skyrocketed. Where it used to be relatively difficult to find situations of SIN, it has become a bit easier to be in such situations as a result of new and emerging communication technologies like social media.
With relationship vices like sexting, flirting, cheating, lieing, and others on the rise, faithfulness has greatly declined, and many of our relationships, especially among young folks, have crashed.
These crashes lead to heartbreaks. Heartbreaks send us a bit more into our shells each time, and before you know it, we become shadows of our original selves.
We then run away from love and friendship, from faith and religion, from selflessness and sacrifice, and end up in a sort of LIMBO where all that matters is our EGO.
But all that can CHANGE.
A relationship, being ‘a close connection between beings’, is really about love, trust, sincerity, dialogue and dedication. Where these core virtues are lacking, that relationship is almost always a LIE.
Hence, before we commit to relationships, we must make up our minds regarding what our intentions truly are.
How can I make a vow to God that I never intend to keep? How can I pledge faithfulness to a spouse while secretly longing for someone else? How can I pledge celibacy when I can’t stop wishing I were married? The ‘how cans’ can go on and on.
Notwithstanding, we must not get discouraged and stop BELIEVING each time we fail. We must also not forget that the ONLY path to success is through failure.
This why we must sometimes PAUSE and REVALUATE. I again wager that it’s NEVER TOO LATE to MAKE AMENDS.
The idea of making amends is not so that we can arrive at perfection all of a sudden. It’s so that we don’t get carried away and lose sight of our ideal standards. It’s so that through our persistent and consistent striving to rise above the odds, we might one day find ‘someone’ or ‘something’ to LIVE FOR.
© Oselumhense Anetor, 2021.
Image Credit PINTEREST
