I like you when you agree with me …

One of the greatest tensions in any kind of relationship is that no two human beings are exactly alike. Put another way, there will always be some differences between any two people who interact. The great human desire is to get the other person to see things the way we see things.

Sadly, sometimes winning that wrestling match becomes more important to us than the person themselves.

When we make any kind of relationship (e.g., with a spouse, with a child or parent, with a friend, with a boss, with God) primarily about getting others to come around to our way of thinking, we have lost the purpose, value, and beauty of interacting with another human being. Controlling or manipulating is not a form of loving.

If someone in your life disagrees with one or most of your views, you still have left the greatest reason for their being in your life: to love them.

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance,” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

Scotty