Relationships are hard work, but they are vital to our getting the most out of this life!  You can do life by yourself, but you are not really living.  Really living is when you do it with other people and when other people do it with you.  So here is a list of 7 things that each of us can do, to help grow and develop the relationships around us:

1.  Learn to really listen! Most of the time, we are listening to reply, instead we need to learn to listen to understand.  When we begin to really understand what the other person is saying, then we can be the help, comfort and encouragment they need us to be.  Stop thinking about what you are going to say and really listen to what is being said to you.  Good listeners use all of their senses to pick up on what is going on!

2.  Work to make your time, quality time!  When someone gives you their time, they are giving you their most precious commodity, don’t waste it!  Make sure that you get the most out of time you have with those that you care about, by giving more and more of yourself.  Be fully alive in the present moment and don’t take one second for granted.  Make the most of the 24 hours you have been blessed with today by spending quality time growing with those that you love and that love you.

3.  Take time for self!  It is not selfish to take some “me” time, in fact, it is vital if you intend to give your best in your relationships with others.  Take time everyday to take care of yourself.  Take time every week to do something that you really enjoying doing.  Take time at least once a month to get away from your regular routine and do something that makes you happy.  This will actually make you more of a joy to be around and will make you a lot more interesting person to those who choose to be a part of your relationship circle.

4.  Stop expeting others to complete you!  Others can add to your life and others can take away from your life, but they cannot complete you.  If you are looking for someone to complete you, you will be disappointed, because even if someone can complete you, they can only do it temporaraly.  The task of completing someone else is fulfilling at first, but it eventually becomes a drain.  The best relationships are made up of give and take.  It is the natural flow of give and take in a relationship that allows the relationship muscles to grow and make life bigger and better.

5.  Appreciate the little things! It is the little things that make life sweet.  The sparkle in your childs eye, the embrace of a lover, the encouragment of a word from a friend, all of these are little things that have a big impact.  Make sure that you are not taking these things for granted.  Everyday of your life and every person in your life is filled with little things that make life sweeter, so make sure you enjoy the sweetness!

6.  Understand that love is expressed in different ways!  We all love in differnet ways.  You can’t make someone love the same way that you do and why would you want to?  The people that are in your life all love you in different ways and for different reasons, enjoy that, celebrate that and get the most from all the different flavors.

7.  Practice forgiveness!   When you become perfect, then you can expect others to be perfect.  Since there is not any danger in that happening anytime soon, then give and receive forgiveness.  I say practice, because we are all works in progress and we need all the help we can get.  And the best way to get better at something is by practice.  Start now – what or who do you need to forgive?

You can do this and your relationships can go to a whole new level and I pray that they will as you live blessed!

I could not sleep last night.  Let me take that back, I actually went to sleep, but only got about three hours before I woke up and was wide awake, after some tossing and turning, I finally realized that I was not going to sleep, so I decided to get up, do my workout and update my blog.  As I am sure many of you know, I have been trying to get healthy over the past couple of months.  I have totally changed my eating, maintained regular exercise, saved off 25 pounds and am feeling the most energetic that I have in my entire life.

I was working with four young guys yesterday, which are at least half my age or younger and I kept cracking on them, because they were letting me, the old man show them up.  I got up this morning, thinking about how blessed I am to get to live the life that I live.  I am a part of an amazing ministry called Grace Place that ministers to people everyday in some of the most incredible and meaningful ways ever.  I have a growing, fun and profitable business that allows me to meet new people from all walks of life.  I have family and friends that love me, are there for me and that make life worth living and sharing.  I could go on and on, but I don’t want this post to be so long that you don’t have time to read it.

Bottom Line:  We are all blessed!  Yes, life may sometimes throw us a curve ball, but there is always a purpose and as we pursue it, we become better and stronger.  Take a little time today to think about all that you have to be grateful for.  Enjoy the blessings that God has surrounded you with and above all – make sure that you are living blessed!

One of my favorite authors, Henri Nouwen said:  “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.”

This is the person that I want to be, but have recently come to realize that I have fallen short of being.  I have become good at giving advice, because so many people ask for mine.  I have gotten used to providing solutions, because there are so many people that have needed me to do that.  It is my natural instinct to try and provide a cure, because I don’t like to see anyone suffer.  While all of this is good and necessary, it sometimes gets in the way of my being able to grow in meaningful and lasting friendship, because people feel that they have to live up to some expectation.

Sometimes when I offer advice, solutions and cures, it is frustrating to see them fall on what I often mistakenly perceive to be deaf ears and bruised hearts.  This has caused me to get caught up in the manipulation game that so much of the world wants to play in and what gets in the way of genuine, caring, meaningful and growing relationships.  I am not God and I have got to learn to trust Him to take care of the stuff that is above my pay grade.

I want to be a real friend!  I want to share the pain of those that I care about, not judge it, correct it, manipulate it, advise it, solve it or cure it.  I want to touch the wounds of those I love with a warm and tender hand, not a hand of correction or perfection.  I want to be this kind of friend, because this is the kind of friend that I want and need.

Please forgive me for where I have fallen short and for where I may have failed you.  It is not because of a lack of love for you.  It is not because I believe myself to be better than you.  It is simply because I am a man and I often miss the mark, but I am learning and promise to try and do better.

Thank you for being my friend and as I work to provide you with true and meaningful friendship, I hope that you can find the grace to maybe do the same for me, because the truth is:  We all need each other, if we are going to live blessed.