do our best to get along with everyone? How do you disengage from unhealthy relationships?
Finally, in part three, I will build on the foundations of relationship and discover the Building Blocks of Relationship. I will tackle topics like trust, love, honesty, influence, hope, humility, and how to build relationships by asking the right questions and taking on an attitude to be ever-learning about others, especially those closest to us.
My challenge to you is to set aside all that you know about relationship. Keep an open mind as we work through the issues we face in our relation- ships with each other. I also challenge you to think of yourself first—in sober judgment. It can be very easy to think of those in our lives who “really need to read this.” However, just as the second most important thing to God is loving our neighbors as ourselves, we need to start with our own lives, beliefs, perspec- tives, pre-conceived notions, and growth points.
Once we can process where we are in our own thinking, how we act, talk, live, and treat others, we can then reach out and be the example to others. Once we begin to live out loving our neighbors as ourselves, our actions will be the influence. We have all heard that our actions speak louder than our words.
The challenge, in the end, is to live out the principles of this book. We can do that by learning from those around us on how to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Accept the challenge. Let’s do this.