Hi guys. Give your inputs.

There is some give and take in relationships. Ideally, a relationship is not all one-sided. There is nothing wrong with wanting a few things from a relationship.

Gary

A relationship, in my opinion, is two people ocming together to create something that is more than the sum of its parts. I am a better person for having my girlfriend, housemates, and others in my life, and it is my sincere hope that I make them better as well.

I have been searching for a meaningful relationship, for a few years now.
And I would like to say that not to many people seem to be open to the idea.
Sadly enough a bad exsperience can spoil people's future happyness.
I have been reading here for a good hr or so, and find most people here unaware of how lucky they are with what they have.
Count your blessing each day. As you have a partner to share it with.

Right

I feel a relationship means to share with the other person in doing things, trust, honesty and being able to communicate your feelings.

Neekoo asked: "Will you try to have the relationship with god if you have no problem???"

EZ Answer: I agree that people tend to consider a relationship with God only when they think they need something. Only when problems arise. I guess that is only human. Squirrels even do it.

I believe spirituality deepens as one tries to have a relationship with God when things are going well.

I believe a relationship with God is easy - from His point of view at least. All we have to do is ask - He's there for us. Living up to our side of it however is harder, because we always have so many other things in our lives that we put first. A human relationship - well, that's a different story altogether. I believe relationships get harder to maintain as the world we live in becomes more selfish. How many marriages fail because "I wasn't happy" or "I wanted more", etc. Unfortunately it's too easy just to throw the towel in - few people really work at relationships anymore, which is why you see so many failed marriages.

Neeko At one time when a person made his vows, The two concerned usually cared enough about those vows to make it last. Nowadays it is too soon married and too soon in the divorce courts.

As for a relationship with God, I think a person needs that in order to see some light in this crazy world.

Hi Neekoo :)

Good question.

I believe that a (desired) relationship is the ever deepening process of getting to know someone else and they getting to know you as well. It happens with spending time together - which, by its very act - usually means that the person considers you a priority. Being considered important, a priority to someone, makes you feel special and in turn, usually makes you want to spend more time with them in return and make them feel special as well.

A relationship also develops from sharing information about oneself. We usually begin by sharing information that isn't so private and gradually share more and more of our private thoughts, hopes and dreams as trust develops, and again, this usually works two-ways.

A relationship is also developed from listening to the other person. Really listening - so that we learn to listen not just with our ears, but with our hearts as well. Listening encourages the other to open up more; listening without judgement encourages greater trust.

A relationship deepens as trust is developed through testing the other person - when we share something personal, private or something that has hurt us in the past, we are testing to see if the other person will respond in a favorable way or not, in a way that will promote further trust or not.

Do we desire a relationship with God if we have no problems? I believe we were all created for this express purpose: to be in a relationship with our Creator. Besides, I don't know a single person without problems :-)

Aside from that though - do we have a relationship with other people just because we might have a problem? No ... and we would not - hopefully - desire a relationship with the Creator only for help either. If we did, that's not a relationship then, it's simply a very one sided and one dimensional relationship - where we are asking and not giving; taking and not giving.

I had an experience once that I'll share with you. In spite of the fact of the almost silly context that this happened in, it has become one of the most powerful experiences in my life. Perhaps the silly context simply serves as a way to highlight how God meets each one of us exactly where we are at when we are open to HIm.

I had bought a new tape & had been dying to listen to a song on it in peace (i.e. without my kids whining about the music and asking for their own :-)). I was due to pick up a friend of mine to go out for dinner and gleefully went to pop the tape in to hear the song on the way. I felt a little ... 'nudging' - a very strong sense that God was asking me to wait on listening to the song and to spend time with Him instead. As I was actually relatively problem-free in that moment, I found this very puzzling but was obedient and drove to my friend's house kind of quietly wondering/praying, asking God what He would have me hear or understand. Nothing. I knocked on my friend's door and she - who is NEVER EVER late - was running behind 5 minutes. I ran back to my van, thinking, all right! I can still have time to listen to this song! - and AGAIN!! the same urging to spend time with God instead. So I sat there, now very puzzled, but in quiet, just waiting. I suddenly was absolutely overwhelmed with love - 'agape love' - Christ love and it was imprinted - emblazoned, really - on my heart and mind that God was not just happy that I had chosen to spend time with Him ... but more so, it was that He wanted me to know that He was happy to get to spend time with ME. I couldn't believe it ... just over and over it washed over me, that HE - the Creator of the universe, the living God ... GOD no less - was happy to spend time with ME - that He WANTED to spend time with me.

It was absolutely unequivocally mind boggling to me and that love that filled me in that moment was pure and perfect and so incredible it defies words.

So in sharing that with you, I just hope you will one day desire to have a relationship with God :-). He certainly wants one with you.

In my opinion, relationships are both give and get, not give and take. Consider when you give someone a gift that they really need or really like, inside you are better for it becasue the love you just shared warmed you up and in a true relationship, you have to be able to give without getting because you truly love them. That's why so many marriages fail, because people expect to much from their partner, but if they wre to go into it asking themselves what can i do for this person whom I love so much for the rest of our years then I think that people would find that they are getting just as much as they are giving and their relationship is strong.

It's the same with God, if you are constantly taking, that doesn't mean he stops giving it just starts to become impersonal, and God is most definitely a personal God.