“I’m In a Relationship!”

If you opened this post with the anticipation of reading some juicy news, I am sorry for misleading you with my title.  If the only reason you opened to read this blog is because of my title, shame on you. Lol. Here is what is on my mind this morning.

I have always been amazed at Facebook and how people use it for “breaking news” in their life.   For those who are not Facebook users, there is this thing called “Relationship Status” where you can change or update the status of your relationship to let everyone know if you are married, in a relationship, single, what you are interested in, etc. When you update your status it will post to everyone and let them know of your status change.  It tells everyone that you have now changed your status. 

We are quick to post that we are “in a relationship” and we want people to be excited for that change.  The problem I have is that when that status is no longer active there is not a button that says, “they didn’t work out” or “they ended up being crazy.”  I honestly believe that they reason we stay in unhealthy relationships is because we post to everyone that “we are in a relationship” or “we are engaged” and then when there are red flags three weeks later we are too prideful or embarrassed to get out of the relationship because we have alerted the world.  

So many times I have counseled couples and they knew there were red flags but they stayed in the relationship or proceeded with the marriage because of the embarrassment to admit to the world that things didn’t work out.  There is so much I can say on that topic but I will save that for another time.

I understand that we are excited about our status change when we post but have we ever considered making sure things are well before we tell social media that our status has changed?  Some people post their first date, they will post the second phone call, they will post their plate of food at IHOP (no offense to anyone) and flowers sent to them at work.  The sad part is that they are make up flowers and not just thinking about you flowers.

Here is a thought!  Why don’t we post or change our status when our relationship changes with God?  Why don’t we post about what he does for us and how he has changed our lives for the better?  I may write Facebook and say that we need a “I have been saved” status change or a “I have been redeemed” button.  Maybe we should change our thought process to being in a relationship with others to “I’m in a relationship with God.”  I have been in many relationships that didn’t work out.  I have had to tell people that it didn’t work and change my status from “in a relationship” to “single.”  But one relationship I have never had to change or be embarrassed about is my relationship with Jesus Christ!  Like the song says: “Falling in Love with Jesus…was the best thing I ever done!”

Michael Oyedokun II