THE ROLE OF RELATIONSHIPS

Sir,

Life is a journey from our past into our present and then into a meaningful future. Our lives, whether, past, present or future are built by relationships. Society today has developed individualistic tendencies; many people take pride in their independence and ability to stay detached from others. We do not need to isolate ourselves from others because life is about relationships. To isolate yourself is to actually celebrate destructive selfishness. 

We are not built for independence, but rather, for interdependence. We need each other in order to achieve meaning in life. Success without relationships is fake and empty. Our highest potential is usually realised when we take the risk of believing in others, and learn to celebrate the right people God has brought into our lives.

Vision

Our personal vision, community vision and national vision cannot be effectively implemented without us learning to walk in meaningful and transparent relationships. Proper relationships help advance us to a higher level of personal effectiveness. God brings certain people in our lives as a link to our future.

We must realise that certain people are positioned around our lives to assist in bringing our vision and dreams to pass, and not to compete with us. Wisdom, therefore, demands that we discern which relationships we should pursue for the betterment of our future and which ones we should avoid because of the potential pain that they will create for us.

Reason

The reason why people so easily break relationships can be traced to the motive why they entered the relationship in the first place. Actually, the manner in which we treat a relationship when we no longer need it, usually reveals a lot about our motives for entering that relationship in the beginning.

We must carefully examine our motives before entering into significant relationships. It must not be out of selfishness. If we enter a relationship or friendship because of ‘what is in it for you’, it won’t grow. True friendship demands unselfish giving. A real friend will always stick with us in times of adversity.

We need real friends in life in order to accomplish vision. Vision can only be accomplished meaningfully in the context of relationships. This is because genuine vision is meant to enhance the lives of others in society. If our dreams are only meant to prosper us, then we are most likely not going to be fulfilled in life.

Fulfilment

Genuine fulfilment is found in helping others to make it in life. Society is much better when we stop competing with each other, and start complementing each other. One of the great hindrances to meaningful relationships is competitive jealousy. Competitive jealousy is a child of pride. It sabotages and distorts relationships. We must not be jealous of one another’s successes or covetous of someone else’s possessions.

Usually jealousy will cause us to be unduly suspicious and fearful of each other. Competitive jealousy causes people to possess a destructive nature. In order to have meaningful relationships we must put away all tendencies of measuring ourselves against others. We must realise that each one of us is unique and adds value to society one way or the other. We all need each other, let us unite and make Eswatini a better country to live in.

C S

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