The gift of relationships

By Vonda DenBoer, Canada East Mission Centre Co-President

Christmas, with all its celebrations, has come and gone. We have jumped into a new year. Whether you made a resolution or not, this is typically a time of reflection—often considering how to improve ourselves or our situations in some way.

This past year has caused me to reflect on the preciousness of relationships. One of my seminary classes required me to articulate my Rule of Life. As I did so, I reflected deeply on relationships—with God, creation, others, and myself. I needed to articulate how I would live out the stewardship of those relationships. For me, stewardship of relationships remains a work in progress.

I was blessed to be deeply loved in my extended family. Because I have known love, I have also known grief. January is a month when I have experienced much grief, but as I reflect on relationships broken by death, I can also feel gratitude for that person’s life, giftedness, and our shared experiences.

Some relationships fade, pause, or even break down. Has this happened to you? An unknown author said that people come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. I had to step away from a relationship once because it was damaging me. Much later in life, an opportunity arose, and I was able to restore that relationship and be blessed by it. I regretted the years lost but celebrated the new life-giving relationship that emerged. Can you reflect on broken relationships and see the opportunity for healing? For lessons learned? For celebrating shared experiences?

Whether in personal relationships, congregational relationships, or beyond, my hope is that we can better appreciate the relationships entrusted to us for the duration given and trust God to show us the way of transformation to God’s purpose.

God’s example as our Creator, Redeemer, and God-with-us Holy Spirit—living in a loving, mutually self-giving community—is our model for stewardship of relationships. This stewardship is also known as the blessing of community.

Humanitarian Albert Schweitzer once said, “Wherever you turn, you can find someone who needs you. Even if it’s a little thing, do something for which there is no pay but the privilege of doing it. Remember you don’t live in a world all on your own.” We truly are a global community, and our actions have ripple effects across the globe.

There is a poem by James W. Foley that says:
“Drop a pebble in the water, just a splash and it is gone;
But there’s half-a-hundred ripples circling on and on.
Spreading, spreading from the centre, flowing on out to sea,
And there is no way of telling where the end is going to be.” 
(Poems That Touch the Heart, compiled by A.L. Alexander, Doubleday, New York, 1956).

If I were to make a resolution, it would be to use my spiritual eyes to see those little things I could do to minister to someone in need and have the courage to act on those prompts.

As a people of Christ’s peace, may each of us strive for righteous relationships with God, others, ourselves, and the earth in the days, weeks, and months ahead. (Doctrine & Covenants 163:2b)

God, where will your Spirit lead me today?
Help me be awake and ready to respond.
Grant me the courage to risk something new to bring blessings of your love and peace.