Page 56 - Relationships101 A Guide To Building Healthy Relationships Final 1

To Love Well and To Be Loved

Dick Purnell also wrote:

“I believe that what we really want is not sex. What we really want is intimacy. God's Love
Is Real and Intimate. When we entrust ourselves to God, He gives us new love and new
power day by day. This is where the intimacy we are looking for is satisfied. God gives us a
love that will not quit and will not stop with the growing years and the changing times. His
love can bring two people together, with Him at the center of that union. In a dating
relationship, as you grow together, not only spiritually, but socially, mentally and
emotionally, you are able to have an honest, caring and intimate relationship, which is
fulfilling and exciting! And when the relationship comes along which culminates in
marriage, the sexual union after these bonds have been made enhances the foundation that
has been established.”

This is not a book about spiritual things. But if I had never come to know about God’s love,
my life would never have changed. And this book would have never been written. If I
counted on receiving love from my earthly father, I would be a bitter, embattled individual.
I would never have experienced the fullness of love and all that life has for me to enjoy.

Because I experienced unconditional love, that loved me when I didn’t love myself, my
expectations changed. I expect the people who say they live me to love me or I don’t
engage with them. Now, I have healthy, symbiotic relationships. My family hasn’t
changed, but I have. I needed someone to prove to me I could trust them. Strangely, the
only being I could trust was my Creator. I had no one else. I used to sit on the sofa in the
dark and tell God everything that was on my mind and in my heart. I expressed my anger,
disappointments, pain, and joy. The relationship I developed with God helped me develop
the ability to be intimate and transparent with myself. This was the first step to learning
myself that would later help me establish and experience positive-sum relationships.

Making your spiritual life just as important to intimacy as your physical, emotional, mental,
and social life will take your life to a new dimension that you have to experience in order to
believe because words cannot explain it. A developed spiritual side is centering. It brings
out harmony and fulfillment in some relationships or necessary endings in others.

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