Grateful for Relationships

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You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1408. Today's episode is called Grateful for Relationships. Hey there.

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We're the Alessies, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional podcast. Hello, everyone, My name is Lauren Alessi and I am your host for this week. And although the whole month we've been talking about being grateful, this week we are honing in on the tiniest little things that can seem like, yeah, of course I'm grateful for that, but really just submitting ourselves to God's creation, to relationships, to life itself, and just being like, yes, even these little things that I take for granted, God, I'm so grateful for. I'm so grateful for them, Lord, I don't know where my life would be without them. I don't know what my life would look like without God's creation. I mean, I wouldn't have a life without air in my lungs. So, God, I'm just so grateful for them. And today we're talking about being grateful for relationships. For some people, this topic is, it's like, easy. Yeah, I love my friends. I love the people around me. Maybe for you this is like, I have a really tough time making, like, solid friendships. I have a really hard time keeping close friends.

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Like, I don't know where you stand in this topic, but let's just dive into the Word and even the, the small relationships we have or the few relationships we have, let's even just bring that to Christ and say, yes, God, even those I'm grateful for. So the scripture verse of the day is Ecclesiastes 4, 9. And, and it says this. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. And I find it so interesting that this verse is found in the book of Ecclesiastes, because if you've ever read Ecclesiastes, it's like the saddest book of the Bible. It's just like, so depressing and so sad. And here it, it talks about relationships and it talks about how relationships are needed.

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Two are better than one. They have a good return for their work, they have a good return for their labor. And what we see here is that God doesn't want us to be alone. And you hear it all the time in Church like, that's not how God designed us. We need people around us, period. Whether it's your mom, whether it's your dad, whether it's your brother, your sister, whether it's your spouse, whether it's your friend. God doesn't want us to walk alone, period. We need healthy relationships around us. We need friends to lean on. We need a spouse in our life to hold us accountable. We need parents in our life to hold us accountable. We need friends in our life to cheer us up or sometimes to call us out. We need healthy relationships in our lives. And if that's something you don't strive for and you don't need, I will say this is not just my opinion. We see it in the Bible that two are better than one. We need relationships in our lives. And if you are someone that has healthy relationships in our lives, this week, Thanksgiving week, let's be grateful for the relationships in our lives. And I will even say this, I challenge you and I even challenge myself. Let's dedicate today to just calling out our friends and our family members one by one.

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God, I thank you for this person. I am so grateful for the friends in my life that God has has placed in my life to not only make me laugh really, really hard, to also cry really, really hard, but also to call me out to where I need to be sharpened. I'm so grateful for my family that they keep me humble because they always want to make sure that I am walking a straight line. I'm so grateful for my family that also just knows how to cheer me up when I'm facing difficult times or I'm so grateful for the people in my life, my family and my friends that just know how to make me a better person on a daily basis. Thank you God, for these people.

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And I just encourage all of us. Let's be intentional about praying today. Gratitude, calling people by name and being grateful for the relationships God has placed in our life. And because God didn't design us to walk alone. So when he's placed intentional people in our lives, let's call them out and tell God how grateful we are for them. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for the people you have placed in our lives. God, we thank you, Lord, that you didn't want us to walk alone. How sad of a life would we have, Lord, if we were supposed to walk alone? I don't want to walk alone. I know most people don't want to walk alone, Lord. So, Lord, I thank you. I thank you, God, for my friends, like, like Danya, like Kirsten, like Krista, Lord, and so many other friends, God, who I just know one hangout with them, Lord, and I'm a better person and I feel better. Lord, I thank you for my parents, I thank you for my mom, for my dad, God, who just know how to hold me accountable to things and make me a better person. Lord, I thank you for my sisters who are also in this podcast, Lord, and my brother, Lord, who's also been on this podcast, Lord, who just know how to be great siblings to me and always uplift me and challenge me and make me better. Lord, I thank you for these people, God and Lord, I pray for everyone listening to this episode, God, I pray that they feel equipped to call their people by name, God, and say how grateful they are for them, God, because you have put them in our lives, God, and we are grateful for them, Lord. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So there you have it. Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today.

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We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend, leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.