Healthy Resolve

I am a feeler.

I care about people deeply.

I want peace and harmony in life and relationships

And I will work tirelessly to achieve this goal.

(Although, often, it makes me very tired.)

 

I am also built to appreciate words of affirmation.

I long for positive words—

To give and receive them—

And I thrive when encouraging words flow freely.

 

For people like me,

Being cut off in relationship with no explanation,

Or worse, by way of negative words,

Is one of the worst things than can happen.

I’d like to say that I don’t know this from experience.

But I do.

Just like some of you.

And we’ve been left to carry the sadness and helplessness that follows.

 

I know that different people have different ways of dealing with life.

I know that not everyone holds to words and people like I do.

I know that some people and relationships are toxic.

I know that sometimes relationships need to end.

I know that sometimes boundaries must be established and that strong words must be used.

 

But friends: Can we agree, for the most part,

To work toward healthy resolve with the people in our lives—

Even when it’s hard?

Can we agree, for the most part,

Not to cut people off without first trying to say goodbye?

Can we agree, for always,

Not to make threats or try to hold power over others through fear and manipulation?

Can we agree, for always,

To love God, first, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, second?

 

Love is hard.

At different times, it is different things.

It is holding on and letting go.

It is drawing close and pulling away.

 

Oh God…help us truly to love…even when it’s hard. Help us to live in healthy relationship with one another, and when it’s time for relationship to end, help us to find peaceful resolve or to let it naturally fade away. Help us, God, to hold to all that is good, noble, and true. And God? When we fail love, please forgive us. Always. Amen.