Relationship PuzzlesSample

### Relationship puzzles It is hard for us as sinful people to get along with one another! We all sin and we all fail. We all struggle with our emotions, thoughts, and bodies; even a Bible hero like Paul struggled from time to time. (Romans 7:15) Relationships are complicated! Maybe things are going well in your relationships. You feel that you and your friend can talk and enjoy each other, freely. Everything is smooth...until it is not. One day you share your true feelings and it causes a disagreement. Your relationship slowly becomes conflicted, distorted, a mess, then, drama! POW! The strand that held your friendship together frays. You step back and wonder… Why? How? What happened? God promises us, “if you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” He never criticizes us. He never says, “Ugh! You screwed up!” But He will teach us how to improve if we want to learn. Relationships are like a puzzle, not an easy 100-piece puzzle, but a challenging 1000-piece! Each piece holds a little bit of the big picture. Friendship has pieces of kindness, pieces of loving care. But it also has sin. Pieces of a too-busy life, attitudes we don’t realize we have, and unhealed childhood wounds. My pieces and yours are all mixed up together in a big pile. We need both perspectives, mine and yours, to build the puzzle and understand one another. If you say my perspective is all wrong, and your perspective is all right, it means you think the problem is simple. Like a child with a shape sorter; circle here, square here, triangle here. An adult-sized puzzle requires time and patience to sort and sift, to frame the edges, to hold each piece and examine its shape, to carefully fit into place. To search under the table and between the cushions for every last piece! Then you will see the picture, and understand what happened between us. Response: Do you want wisdom? Do you want to learn? Think of one relationship conflict you have in your life and ask God to give you wisdom about it for the next 14 days.