“Love isn’t complicated. People are.”  Unknown

When friends put on social media “it’s complicated” as their relationship status, I think redundant. No one needs to point out the obvious. Relationships are complicated – mine, yours, and theirs. 

There was no way to write a book about getting to the other side of trying hard without a chapter about how easy or hard people made it to get there. Y’all played a part, good and bad, in all three sections of this story – the healing, the happiness, and the holiness. 

People are a big part of why we try hard and fly or try hard and fail. 

For years I knew I needed to stop putting emphasis on and reacting to what people said and wanted, but I couldn’t or wouldn’t do it. I said I wanted God at the center of my life, but that’s not how I lived. 

When I reflect back, it really felt like I could not stop making people so important. Now that I’m straightening out my priorities (with God and people’s help), I wonder if that’s true that I couldn’t stop or if I refused because I wanted my way. 

Whichever it was, my relationships with people aren’t nearly as complicated as long as my relationship with God stays central. Pastor JP said, “When people ask for marital advice, the number one thing I tell them is they both need a relationship with Jesus.”

His advice applies to every relationship. We can’t force others to choose God, but we can keep our own relationship with Him intact and in it’s right place, which is before all the rest.  

Relationships are simpler when we simply put Jesus first.   

In This Together, 
Kim

FYI: I’m blogging my book titled On The Other Side of Trying Hard: Healing, Happiness, and Holiness. Because these blog posts are a manuscript instead of stand-alone stories, some posts may leave you hanging. I hope you’ll hang in here with us anyway ‘cause a happy ending is coming. My blog post title includes the chapter title first. The phrase in parentheses is the subheading. I’m over-the-top grateful to have you here. I’d love to hear your reflections, questions, and comments.