Building Healthy Relationships

INTRODUCTION

ADOPTING MEASURES AND APPROACHES TO ENSURE HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP

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ife is made up of relationship and what we do, how we do it, and what we represent determine our level of satisfaction and success in relationship. In the beginning of mankind, God formed relationship and created a healthy atmosphere for Adam and Eve to be supportive of one another, but unfortunately the couple’s fulfilment as plan by God was hindered by human sinful nature. There are many forms of relationship; however, this writing will be focusing towards adopting measures and approaches that will promote healthy couple’s relationship. Relationships are not without problems and conflicts because couples have different perceptions and they also react differently in addressing or confronting issues. Relationship issues are common in every home because of different exposure and lifestyles and even Christian’s homes struggle with issues. Problems and conflicts do pose unhealthy relationship if they are neglected and not dealt with in God’s way. It is God’s principle that people respond to their differences in a Biblical way and use their disagreements to stimulate growth and develop their lives and maintain healthy relationship. The Key factor is the ability for the couple to live together in love.

To achieve a loving and caring relationship, the following biblical and psychological approach will be reviewed and discussed:

- Confession of love with evidence – Trust, Freedom and Boundaries,

- Recognizing and Celebrating of Achievement in the Relationship

- Forgiveness

- Repentance/Remorse

- Non-judgmental or non-shaming approach

- Solution to Conflicts

- Voiding Loneliness in Relationship – Adopting effective communication

- Supporting one another – Understanding your spouse weakness and assist

- Transparency in Relationship (Avoid too many secrets)

- Controlling Relationship

- Sex in Marriage

- Sharing of values/Responsibilities

- Restoration/Redemption

- Adoption of Prayer

The adoption of these factors in a healthy manner will result in a fulfilling relationship. One of the goals of this research is to help the readers tackle mistakes that are unhealthy for us to dwell in and resulting in unfulfilling relationship. Healings comes in our lives when we have the ability to recognize our mistakes and being remorseful about our sin and confess it to one another (James 5:16). When mistakes are identified, forgiveness of sin is necessary for conflicts to be resolved. Forgiveness is not just something or a tool to promote healthy relationship, but also God’s requirement for us to have a meaningful relationship with him and others. Many secular therapists see forgiveness as logical and they do not often adopt the concept in therapy because they feel that it is an imposed choice on the clients and it is against their wills and may likely expose the victims to more danger in the case of a relationship with domestic violence or rape issues. The Christian counselors see the concept of forgiveness as Christian duty and obedient to God’s Word and as a tool to create environment for healing.

Relationship works well when the people participate and share values and interest in the relationship and act as lifting agents for a weak and falling partner (Galatians 6:1-2). It’s helpful for couple in marriage to confront one another sometimes, but it should be with love because Non-judgmental or non-shaming approach creates atmosphere of reconciliation in the relationship.

Each of these approaches and measures will be captioned in a separate chapter and discuss in relation to biblical and psychological viewpoints.