… and relationships don’t work unless we do.

Earlier this year I wrote a post on Friends v Acquaintances, and today’s post is loosely related with inspiration from a conversation that I had earlier this week.

We’ve often been involved in conversations where the main theme is “is love a feeling or a decision?” While love does evoke feelings like: butterflies, excitement, heart flutters, weak knees, and making a person not want to eat or sleep-I’d say that love is a decision. When all those feelings wear off, it’s a decision to stay or exit a relationship or friendship that will keep a person committed or not.

And because love is a decision, it needs action to work properly. It needs you to show joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness and self-control. It needs you to be there, to follow up with, to visit with, to respond to, it expresses what the other person means to you, and to help in times in need. Just like faith without works is dead, love without action is dead. No relationship will properly work unless we do.

In May of this year I was discussing with someone how love needs action. We both have felt the distance of friends as our 20s move on. He pointed out that people are just plain busy with their lives. As I approach 30, some of those intimate friendships that I had during my university years have waned or died. It’s partly due to people getting married and starting their own families. I realize that when a man or woman leaves home and is joined to their spouse, and baby(ies) come, there are will be change in priorities. Those you once hung out with will take a backseat to all the hanging out that you once did. Family, a job, and other things pulling at your attention will take precedence. I realize all this, but, there must be some effort on our parts to make time for friendships. Friendships are a gift from God and if we prioritize our time correctly we’ll have time to send a “hello, thinking about you” text. Or, make a quick Sunday call to that university buddy. Or, make a lunch date with that old coworker that we used to crack jokes with.

In our busy lives we can lose sight of the fact that relationships don’t work unless we do, and that we must make an effort to invest into people. People don’t know what you mean to them unless you tell them. There are some things that must be professed with our mouths and actions.

It’s the same in our relationship with God. We have to fight and make time for Him everyday. He wants us to show Him what He means to us. But I believe He wants us to take it a step further and open our mouths and tell Him what He means to us. He wants to hear it even though He can read our hearts.

May we take some time out of our busy schedules to send a “thinking about you/ how are you?” text; or call someone for a quick chat. People don’t know what they mean to us unless we tell them and show them. And may we remember that love needs action and relationships don’t work unless we do.

Happy Friday!

This post is dedicated to Yarra Wellney.

Photos are representations of friendship groups around the world. They are also free and uncopyrighted.