We all have many types of relationships in our lives.  Everything from marriage, child-parent,  close friends, relatives, co-workers, church people and many more.  Whenever there are two people in a relationship, there is the possibility for failure.  We don’t like to admit this because it hurts so bad when there is a breakup.  I’m not talking about divorce, but all the other relationships we find ourselves in.

My brother-in-law disowned us over 10 years ago.  He didn’t like the fact that we were Christians.  We don’t know if he is dead or alive.  He made it very clear that he never wants to hear from us again.  This hurt us, especially my husband, very much.  He is his only sibling and his parents are both gone.  We have tried to contact him, even through his lawyer, but to no avail.  My husband and my children have  no relatives on that side of the family, other than distant cousins.

We all have friends who have either betrayed us or just turned away from the relationship.  We all have family members who either use and abuse us or ignore us altogether.  We have co-workers who drive us nuts, but still we have to work through it.  Sometimes even our own children pull away for no apparent reason.

So what can we do?  The bible tells us that if we have aught against someone we are to go to them and straighten it out.  We should be willing to forgive and forget.  That isn’t always easy, since there usually is a lot of finger pointing and blaming going on.  But still, we must if we are to remain in good standing with God.

There as many solutions to this problems as there are problems themselves.  One size doesn’t fit all.  But this I know, Sometimes you just have to smile, pretend everything is okay, hold back the tears and just walk away. 

     When we have done all we know to try to mend a relationship and the other person doesn’t want to co-operate.  We can’t force them to be our friend.  We can’t force them to love us.  We must go on!  We cannot allow this one failure to taint all of our relationships.  It is always hard to say “good bye” to someone we love, but we must be true to God and all the other people who are important to us.