Building Faith into your Relationships

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” -Thomas Paine

Have you felt like this? Life is not easily conquered or mastered. It's tumultuous at times for various reasons. We have to work at it constantly or it easily overwhelms and conquers us. But in today's world we live in an age devoted to labor saving devices of all kinds. It save us time and energy by not having to labor as much as previous generations.  But I believe we have carried this over into how we value relationships with people.
Don't get me wrong, I love all my modern convenience shortcuts, but I have noticed how easy it is for us to just throw things away because we can just go and get another one. If this were limited to just objects it wouldn’t be such a big deal.  But it happens all too often in our relationships with our friends and family.
Notice how easy we disregard and throw away friends and family today rather than work to build. If this is going to stop, we will definitely have to change how we value the relationships we have today and even the ones that we would have in the future.
Healthy relationships are hard to build. It will require work and living unselfishly which is not easy.  But when we value people, places in our lives, they become meaningful and we become better people.

I have come up with a few reasons how you can build better relationships and reasons why you should want them, too.  To start building stronger and better relationships you will need to understand the concept of faith.

 What exactly is faith? 

(this is not necessarily about religion)
Faith - is a firm persuasion; a complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
Here are a few synonyms for faith: trust, belief, confidence, conviction

                                           

Here are a few reasons why you should use faith:

 1.You already use it

Here's an easy one, you're already using it.
In fact,  you've already used it today!
When you started your car; when you flipped the light switch; when you put the car in into drive, you expect the results of something you could not see and you got it.

2. Faith increases your effectiveness

When you build faith/trust into relationships you increase your effectiveness and the effectiveness of the relationship.
Why is this important?
Relationships are an investment. The more you put in, the more you can get back.
By increasing your effectiveness you are building a deeper impact into relationships.
With this deeper impact, you can help influence others better.
And with this increased effectiveness, you can lead, motivate others more effectively and help them grow.

3. It causes growth within you

When you use faith to build relationships it will GROW you into a leader. It is inevitable. By investing your time and energy into this kind of project, you will grow.
Another by-product of growing is success.  Because of adding faith to relationships it adds more success for you.  This will be evident as you will see and feel the reward of the work.

  5 ways to build faith/trust into your relationships:

1. Get fully invested. 

How committed are you to building relationships? Are you laying it all on the line without holding anything back? If you are, you’re ready to build. If you hold back, it will be noticed. Nothing builds trust like a total commitment.

 2. Act in harmony with your words.

Make sure that your actions support your words without any need for excuses. Most communication is nonverbal. So if your mouth says “trust me” but your actions say “Don’t trust me” then you will have trust issues.  An example of this is rolling your eyes at what people say or you have the look on your face that's says I would rather not talk to you.

  3. Be tactfully honest.

 When you’re honest with your relationships it shows that you respect that person and being tactful shows that you care. But when you’re not tactful with your words, it lacks consideration for the other person’s feelings and can be downright cruel for others. Sure, honestly give someone feedback if they ask but they shouldn't feel horrible that they asked you for it. Say it tactfully.

 4. Be reliable. 

Reliability is clearly linked to trustworthiness. Make every effort to do what you say you will do. If something comes up and you can’t follow through, explain what happened so no one is left hanging. We all have responsibilities. You are being counted on to deliver on your word. No relationship flourishes when one is considered unreliable.
Take your commitments seriously if you want to be thought of as reliable.

                                                      5. Acknowledge peoples thoughts and feelings. 

Do you acknowledge peoples thought and feelings? How much sarcasm are you giving?  Are you using the“whatever” verbal expression? Thoughts and feelings don’t always make sense to everyone. We all have different ideas. Appreciate others thoughts and ideas. The important thing here is don’t say something that invalidates their point of view. Instead, listen! Do your best to try and see where they are coming from. By acknowledging their thoughts and feelings you validate them. By doing this, it says you respect them and they will communicate freely because you acknowledge and listen.





Why is any of this important?  Because it's all about people.

It's about relationships with people.  They matter. You matter.  Your future matters.  That is why it is important to use faith to build relationships. Because you are building people and you are building your future.