People can spend their entire lives looking for their most suitable partner. Some have an unattainable ideal in their minds that makes the search impossible. Others may choose a different partner over and over again without any real discernment, leading to a long series of breakups and heartache. Perhaps the greatest obstacle for people lies in their assumption that the most important criteria for choosing a partner is that the person they choose to love needs to be devoted to them and be faithful to them above all others. The truth is that if you want to have a suitable partner who you find yourself drawing ever closer to as the years go by, then the focus of both people involved needs to be on a much more important being than the two of you.
When I was a teenager, I remember seeing a triangle used as a visual aid in explaining how true love works. God is the top point and the two lovers, friends, or family members involved are the bottom points. If the two involved in the relationship love God more than each other, than in time it will be their love for the Divine that will bring them ever closer, like how a triangle narrows at the top point.
The more I give of myself to my God, the greater I find my love is for my wife, my children, and my friends. A stewardship way of life will eventually strengthen all our relationships, for a surrender to the One who is love means an increase in the love we have to give to others. For those who continue to search for the “one,” pause, pay attention, and see the One who has always loved you and will do so forevermore.
Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS is the Director of Parish Community and Engagement for LPI, Inc. He has a BA in theology from DeSales University and a MTS from Duke Divinity School.