March 26. Three Of Today's Top Twelve Are In Your Triangle Of Influence.

Who are the people in your present? What I mean by that is that you have friends, family, business associates, employees, employers, and you also are a customer somehow. Who are these people in your life? We are either serving them, in relationship with them, or being served by them.

We bring value to one another in some manner. That value proposition is important because it is very likely that most of the relationships will change in some way. We can be asking ourselves every week how we might be in better relationships.

I suspect that a better relationship with anyone starts with us. If that seems reasonable to you then we might also stretch to think about how to bring more value to them then we take. If our attitude is set to think how to bring more to others, we are more likely to do exactly that.

We all have a desire to be comfortable. When others bring us comfort and provide value, we welcome them. We want to see them and be engaged more deeply with them. As a business owner, a father or mother, who are the top three people for you to build upon your relationships with in the next seven days?

There is a passage in the Bible found in Luke 8:19-21. I can recall thinking at my first reading of it that it was very strange. In the passage, we find Jesus with the disciples and a crowd gathered when Jesus' family comes to see him.

The crowd is large enough that the family is not able to walk right up to Christ and therefore their arrival is told to Christ. But Christ states, "My mother and brothers are those that hear God’s word and obey it.” That is it. It seems that maybe he will not see the family.

That he will not even recognize them. Do you read it that way? I think that this may challenge our view of what we want from our relationships. We do not want change because we fear loss. Christ has shown that our relationships will change but that it does not have to imply or require loss.

Our relationship with him itself is a change. We put our old ways out for a new life in him. Let us cherish our relationships that we have with others. Let us build upon them while we have them. Our family members will become more than just family members.

They will become spouses, parents, colleagues, and members of our communities. What can we do to build on the relationships we have today? Christ chose twelve men to be his close group of disciples. Do you have twelve people that you are in close relationship with? What is the first thing that you can do about it in the next seven days?

Let us pray, Heavenly Father, the only relationship that we will always have is you. Bless our relationships as people will come in and out of our lives. Bring your comfort and love as we grow in our relationships that we have now. Help us to find new relationships as well.

Help us to bring others in relationship to you. Guide us Lord. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen,