Conscious: Was, Is, Will Be

Breathing. You've been doing it for a good long while. You don't have to think about it. It just sort of happens... like the millions of other little things that happen in your body that you take for granted.

Cool, wouldn't you say? Because honestly, we'd be a little bit at a loss without breathing. It would be the end of life. Shazzam. Kaboom. No more.

Now let's pretend we could only breathe IF we were conscious of doing it all the time. Or maybe we had to learn how to breathe and in learning how to breathe, we had to constantly be conscious of breathing.

If (in this scenario) you were to forget about breathing, it would start to suck the life out of you and things would become very unpleasant until you get things back on track again. If you weren't conscious of breathing, things would start to die off.

Okay. Nice story. Where am I going with all this?

The other half in your relationship is a part of you that you have to be conscious of. Not in a hyper-freak-control-maniac sort of way, but in a way that looks out for, honors, protects, seeks to serve, seeks to love, and seeks to understand better sort of way.

Breathing is nice, but we take it for granted. A lot. Which is okay, because our lungs keep on pumping along just the same. We don't have to be conscious of how to breathe, how to breathe well, etc etc (short of being in drastic situations, but you get me).

THE POINT: lack of consciousness in your relationship is like our breathing/consciousness scenario. If  you are not aware of what is important and consciously striving for it, things will start to die off.

What sort of important things?

Communication.

The other person's needs.

Acting respectfully and kindly in all situations.

Carrying yourself in a way that reflects well on both you and your other half.

Shall I go on?

Make it your mission to make things God honoring, spectacular, and always on the upside. Nope. It's not easy. Nope. I'm not perfect at it. But that won't stop me from working at it, it won't stop me from constantly seeking God in this.

Are you conscious or comatose?