Love is sitting around a dinner table with the people who have raised you and made you who you are, laughing and talking about your day. Love is getting coffee with your little sister. Love is a best friend who puts up with the weird things you do because she thinks you’re worth it.

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

1st Corinthians 13:7

I am blessed to have so many people who love me and stand by me, no matter what, and I want to do all that I can to grow these relationships and strengthen them. Of course, being a girl with a very maternal instinct, I also want to grow a relationship with a godly man. I pray daily that God changes the parts of me that are wrong and that He helps me become the best myself I can be, so that when He brings the right guy into my life, I will be ready for him. That being said, when this Earth passes away and I am in heaven, I won’t be married. It’s a sad thought, but I know God has His reasons for everything, and so while I want to be the best daughter, sister, friend, and future wife as is physically possible for me, more than that, I want to be the best daughter of God.

Just as you grow your relationship with your friends and family by spending time with them, in the same way you grow your relationship with God. The same precepts that have been admonished to us for all of our lives by Sunday School teachers actually work: read your Bible and pray. Sometimes we think about these two things and we groan. "The Bible is boring," or "It is too hard to read!" are just a few of the complaints that I have heard from others (and that I have said myself at times). It all changes, though, when your actions are fueled by love. For example, when things in my life were going well, I let reading my Bible and praying slack. As a result of this, my relationship with God did not grow. It just remained stagnant. As difficult times have come my way, however, I have been reminded of how desperately I need God. My prayer and Bible reading—my relationship with God—is the only thing that can fill the hole in my heart, and so I pursue it passionately. Sometimes, though, I don’t feel the desire to read my Bible or pray. It is in these moments when I need to the most, because these are the moments that are changing my life. Every second I devote to God—not to the vain pursuits that pursue me—is a small victory for our relationship. Sometimes the refining fire necessary for a relationship comes only through the small sparks created through sacrifice.

The best part of growing your relationship with God is that, as it grows, so does every other relationship you have. When you spend more time with the God of perfect love, perfect love will flow from you to those around you. As you learn from Him what it means to truly forgive, forgiveness will be manifested in your relationships. Relationships are important. God created us to be relational beings, and through relationships we are offered the best way to imitate Him and spread His love to others. That being said, there will come a day when the titles of wife, mother, and daughter will fade away, and what will be left is the title of son or daughter of God. This relationship, this love, is eternal.