Reason for My Relationship Health
June 13, 2022
Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. Galatians 6:7-10 NLT
We are all familiar with the principle God set in motion in the universe: We reap what we sow. You can’t plant potatoes and expect watermelons. You will get exactly what logically will come from the seeds you sow. You can’t pray an effective enough prayer to turn those potato plants into watermelons.
We understand that principle when it comes to potatoes and watermelons. We also generally understand it when it comes to things such as breaking the law. We say, “If you do the crime, you do the time.” We tell our children that if they don’t study, they won’t pass the test. But somehow that God-given principle is often lost on us when it comes to our relationships. We have relationships that fail badly, that do not yield the results we eventually want from them, and we seem at a loss to understand why. I have clients who come in for counseling because they are estranged from their children, or a spouse has left. Way too often they have no clue of what I can see in the first session. They spent years planting weeds in those relationships and somehow expected a beautiful flower garden in the next season of life. It never works that way.
Harry Chapin’s poignant song, Cat’s in the Cradle, talks about the seeds of neglect and absence a father planted in his son’s life. When the dad became an old, lonely man, craving time with his son, the seeds he planted had become full grown and the son had no time for him.
It happens in dozens of areas. We are responsible for the health of our relationships.
Paul gives specific directives that will help in our relationships. Don’t delude yourself into believing you will reap anything better than you have sown. God says it. Make pleasing God your #1 focus, not pleasing your own nature and desires. We please Him by loving others as Jesus has loved us. All relationships take work and have hard moments. Don’t quit when they do. God rewards the right kind of seeds. Eventually you will reap an appropriate harvest, even if it’s delayed, if you persevere. Take every opportunity to do good in your relationships, regardless of what the other person does. No relationship will be healthy if someone is not big enough and godly enough to be the initiator. Keep responding in a godly manner, no matter what. You WILL reap what you sow. Make it healthy!
- Jesus, help me distinguish the good seeds from the bad and plant a handful of good ones every day. Harvest will come! Amen.