This pilot episode explores the realities of human relationships through a theological lens, challenging idealized cultural views. It lays a foundation for future discussions on applying these principles in daily life, setting a compelling tone for a series focused on understanding relationships through divine truth. Download the free reflection guide to apply the teaching!

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Welcome to a thought provoking episode of Relationship Realities.

Our hosts, Sam and Debbie Wood are thrilled to have you with us today.

Whether you're a single or married listener.

Get ready for a captivating journey where we explore the realities of relationships beyond the fairy tales.

Debbie and I are so excited to kick off this first episode of Relationship Realities.

And we added the tag beyond the fairy tales.

Dan, why do we add that fairy tales?

You know, when I think about present day fairy tales, I think about things that particularly females watch, like Hallmark.

And they're always on Facebook.

And in Facebook, people present their lives as being absolutely perfect.

They are perfect.

They're married to the exact right mate and they never have problems.

They just love each other deeply.

And I think we have to add beyond the fairy tales because we recognize that a lot of those scenarios are just not real life.

So we want to look at the realities behind the fairy tales.

That is what relationships really are like.

So I think to, you know, to get started in this first episode, which we're so excited about, we want to discuss the foundation of relationships.

That is, where do they come from?

Where did relationships originate from?

And you know, when I think of that, I think of Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1.

In the beginning, God created.

And so we have to say relationships from the beginning originated from God.

And they exist because God himself is a relational God.

He's a triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

In fact, we see that in Genesis chapter 1 in verse 26, where God says, let us make man in our image after our likeness.

We see the us, the our.

The us God referring to himself as more than one person, that is three persons in one.

Definitely a plurality there.

Yeah.

Listen to this.

Because you love me.

Before the creation of the world, so he was.

The Father was loving the Son.

In Jesus priestly prayer High priestly prayer he said, before the foundation of the world, then I love what Augustine says.

He says there was a circle of love.

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And they were delighting in each other's being and they were praising each other's glory.

They were enjoying each other's beauty.

They were pouring love into one another's bosom.

Wow, what a statement.

Now, this isn't a fairy tale.

This is truth.

And this is what we can look to for our relationships.

And what I love about this is how they were pouring that.

Each member of the Trinity was pouring this selfless love into one another.

They were pouring respect to one another.

They were supporting each other in their very different and diversified roles so that they were supporting each other in the purposes that the others each had.

You know, and Augustine continues, and I love this too, he says, one day they said, that is the Trinity.

Let's expand the circle.

Let's expand the community.

Let us create beings that.

Who can become part of the circle.

Wow.

And so we see from that that God created us for relationships, since we are made in his image.

You know, we're designed to connect with others just like he is connecting and has connected from all eternity past.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

You see, if we want to properly image God, we were created in his image.

If we want to properly image him, then we have to be in relationship with others.

That's a reason.

He said, it's not good that man be alone.

I need to make him a helper so that he won't be alone, so that there will be someone in that circle of love that can pour selfless love and respect into his life.

So when God said in Genesis 2:18, it's not good for man to be alone, it wasn't because man necessarily had complained to God, I don't have somebody else.

But it was because God realized, being made in his image, that he needed someone to pour selfless love into and someone to pour selfless love into him so that he could reflect and really image the Trinity.

Yes.

And I love, though, that we have a model for that.

Because when I think about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit all deciding we want other image bearers like us to join us in this circle of love, then I think that establishes in each one of us this sense of belonging.

I am wanted.

I am accepted.

I belong first of all to this perfect circle of love.

And if I can embrace that, really wrap my head around it and embrace it fully, then I can find my security and my significance in the fact that I am part of that circle.

Then that frees me up to love other people.

Wow.

You know, and I can't help but think about the quote by C.S.

lewis where he calls it a dance, you know, a divine dance of love.

And, you know, we think we can look at the Trinity as a model then we could might say, for really healthy relationships.

That's what God created our relationship to be, to emulate, is the relationships within the Trinity.

So, yeah, I think the Trinity shows us how to relate to each other through that mutual, selfless love we keep mentioning through humility and through unity.

It's an environment of acceptance and belonging.

And not just that.

There's this real depth of communion when we think about the relationship of the Trinity.

They knew each other well, and again, they supported each other.

They had deep conversations with each other.

And I think that's the model for us, that we would have deep communion in our relationships.

Well, so you're saying what they have is an atmosphere of acceptance, belonging.

There was no fear of not being accepted.

There was no fear of not belonging.

It was perfect.

A perfect love, perfect, selfless love.

It was humility, you know, and.

And what a wonderful thing that is because, you know, I shared with you yesterday the quote I'd read by Paul Miller about humility is disappearing for the sake of love.

The art of disappearing for the sake of, wow, how beautiful is that?

That, you know, there was total humility.

There's no pride.

God says he hates pride.

So there is no pride in their relationship.

There's selfless love in the relationship.

And then that word you mentioned, too.

Unity, total unity between Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Oh, it all works together so beautifully, you know, And I had a wife last week, and we were talking about their relationship, her relationship with her husband.

And she was saying, you know, he tends to say, stay on the surface of things.

We don't have really deep conversations.

We talk about the weather, we talk about the kids.

We talk there, you know, about our schedules.

But we don't get deeper than that.

And see, that's not the relationship that God intended.

And she was asking me, what are ways that I can help develop that depth of communion with my husband without him feeling like I'm criticizing him.

And so those are some of the things we talked about.

Yeah.

And it's so important to realize that the more I reveal myself to you or you reveal yourself to me, the deeper that relationship can be because we're being transparent with each other.

There was that total openness between God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and the Trinity.

That's a model for us of even that transparency that God wants us to have in our own relationships.

Right.

But that can be scary because if I really let you in and let you know what's going on in my head and my heart, then I might suffer rejection.

You might think I'm a horrible person, or you might.

What I like to think of it is transparency is where there's liberty, where there's an atmosphere of acceptance, where I can Be free to admit my struggles without a fear of condemnation and where I can also express my dreams without a fear of ridicule.

And I think that is the.

That's the direction that the Trinity is pointing us in.

Yeah.

And so we have seen, really, in this first episode, that relationships find their origin in the relationship, the eternal relationships that existed in the Trinity.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

And.

And because God created us in his image, we were created for relationships like the Trinity has.

And it shows us how we should approach relationships in selfless love, humility, and unity.

Beautiful.

But how do we get practical on that?

And again, when I was talking with this wife, what we decided is she needed to create this atmosphere of acceptance.

And one way in particular that wives can do this is by showing respect, even if their husbands are struggling with a sin in their life.

I told her she could pray, she could ask God to remind her of all of the aspects of his character that were positive that she admired.

And she needed to be intentional to vocalize those things to her husband.

And also if they are discussing struggles, then she needed to let him know, I'm on your side.

You know, I'm here to help.

I'm here to pray with you.

Together we can take this to the Lord and it's something we're in together.

I don't see that I'm against you in this.

I want to walk forward in this with you.

Yeah.

You know, in reflecting on the beauty, I think of the Trinity and the relationships in the Trinity.

If we reflect on that, we might meditate on that.

It can help transform our relationships with our spouse, with our family, and everybody we come in contact with.

So.

Right.

Because it reminds us of their selfless love and how their concern was not for self, their concern was for each other.

Wow.

Well, this is so much more we're going to talk about in future episodes.

I do want to ask, if you're listening, to share this episode, maybe with five of your friends to help us get this going as we launch this Relationship Realities podcast.

And also you'll see a link where we have downloadable reflection guide that you can download.

Look over and gives you something to reflect on from this episode over the next week that we think will be very, very helpful to you.

What about future episodes, Deb?

What do you think that's going to look like?

I feel like in future episodes, we'll especially get beyond the fairy tales, because we're going to look at some of the fairy tales that are just not true.

Also, we're going to look at things that hinder our relationships.

We're going to look at ways to build our relationships and so there'll be a lot more going on in the other future episodes.

So we're excited about what we're going to share in the future and just look forward to sharing more truths with you, more realities about relationships and episodes to come.

God bless you.

Thank you for listening today.

If you have been blessed by today's episode, please follow the podcast and share it with your friends.

Click on the link to download a free Reflection guide to help you apply the teaching in this episode.

Also, check out our Time for three and Fortifying youg Family Podcasts.