We live in an age of disaffected cynism, of broken hearts, of souls begging for a way, a path, a simple truth that will lead to basic happiness. "Where is the instruction manual," we cry out, wringing our hands at the heavens.
Alyssa Reeves, in a column — nay, more than a column: a beacon of light and hope — in today’s Collegian, counselled readers in love to remember the true purpose of relationships.
As a follower of Christ, I turn to the one who created relationships. The Bible says in Lamentations 3:40, “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.”
The better we understand how something is designed to work, the less we will try to make it something it’s not. Have you ever tried cooking eggs in a toaster? The toaster was not designed to cook eggs.
Exactly. Have you ever try to make love to a toaster? I am so not doing that again. It never called me back. Jerk.
The most common misconception about relationships is that a person should find a soul mate to “complete” him or her. The problem is, this turns into spiritual idolatry.
We are to find fulfillment and purpose in God. Our spouse will fail as our “god.” No person can live up to such expectations.
Instead of finding the right person, falling in love and fixing our lives around this person for our future fulfillment, God’s design for relationships is to become the right person by doing what God does. This includes walking in love, fixing our hope on God and seeking to please him with our relationships.
I went to Christian schools growing up, and this kind of vague condescension, cookie-cuttering us as it does into the preacher’s superficial version of a Model Family Member In Christ while shaming us into silence when our individual hearts had individual concerns born of individual passions; this was their advice for everything. Along with "don’t ever masturbate."
[Source: K-State Collegian]
