John Carver Show - Learn How to Build Strong Relationships (Rick Warren)

There are three problems that keep us from loving fully as God intended:

1. We’re all imperfect. There are no perfect relationships because there are no perfect people.

2. Sin disconnects us. Adam and Eve had the first broken relationship and disconnected themselves from God and from each other. We’ve been excusing ourselves and accusing the people we love ever since.

3. The more disconnected we are, the more fearful we become. We crave intimacy, but we fear vulnerability. We crave acceptance, but we fear rejection.

You are a product of your relationships. Study after study shows that our identity is largely determined by what we think the most important people in our lives think of us. That’s why you should make sure that Jesus is the most important person in your life, because he will love you unconditionally.

We all have different connections: some healthy, some broken, some non-existent. It’s important to have healthy connections because it plays such a large role in determining your identity. People who have healthy relationships don’t have to ask, “Does my life matter?”