Smart phones can be a love / hate relationship for me. When you first get them they are super fast and everything normally works just the way you want them to. Click a button and boom your application is up and running. But what happens, is then you start to install more apps. You add Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Whats app, and customize your phone to your liking. With all that, we begin to fill our phone with daily selfies, videos and other files to capture our entire life on that one device that we store in our pocket.
After a while, the phone that you invested into, which was super fast and filled with memories begins to slow down and have problems. Apps start to crash and what once seemed so perfect is hit with frustration and struggles. Eventually it gets to a point where you have two options, you can either throw it out and get another phone, or you can take everything off that is clogging it down and hit the system reset button. With our culture and society we are quick to throw away the old and go buy something new. We don’t like to be frustrated with things that don’t go our way, so we simply dispose of them and move on to something else. Rarely do I find that people will hit the reset button and continue with their old phones until death do them part.
I feel like smart phones are a good representation of our relationships. We first find that special person, the butterflies start to take over internally, and you are just so happy and excited to be with them. Your days go by so fast when you hold them in your arms and you don’t ever want it to end. But the more you spend time with that person, you begin to realize that they are their own person and can be just as selfish as ourselves.
Memories start to add up, life begins to happen and the truth is the people closest to us can hurt us the most. We can begin to hold on to things that they have done and it can be really tough when things get hard. Anytime you go back into an area of hurt things can crash and unforgiveness and bitterness can begin to cluster your mind against that person. Letting go is hard but it is like a corrupt file that can crash your relationship. If you don’t deal with it, like many relationships somebody ends up leaving and moving into something else that is “Easier and New”.
The reality is we can either give up and move onto somebody new, or we can hit the reset button and lay all of junk that you have gathered during the relationship and put it in the trash bin. It requires a lot of hard work to keep tossing all those negative thoughts and unforgiveness out of your life. So just putting them in the trash bin is not enough, you have to empty the trash bin never to bring those issues back up again. Although you might not be able to fully forget everything, you can lay it at the feet of Christ and ask God to give you a relationship reset. He is a God of reconciliation and bringing the broken into completion.
If you are in a relationship now that is from God, don’t give up. You might have to hit the reset button, which means laying down all your hurt, pain, brokenness, bitterness, unforgiveness or anything else that is causing your relationship to not flourish in Christ. But don’t give up! If you are married, seek counseling and really work hard to preserve what God has given you! God is powerful, but you have to trust Him and be willing to set aside your burdens and fully let them go. WHEN YOU FULLY SURRENDER YOUR JUNK, THERE IS NO GOING BACK! Then you will see God at work in your relationship.
