Relationships can be tricky. They certainly can be hard.

Over the years I have learned the following three steps to help me with relationships.

First, accept the fact that everyone has weaknesses.

Acknowledging your own weakness will help you accept the fact that other people have weaknesses, make mistakes, and do dumb things. The more we understand the frailty of human beings, the more we can make our relationships better.

Most people have a tendency to forgive their own mistakes but to magnify the mistakes of others. The sooner we accept that no one is perfect the sooner we can begin to heal broken relationships and make them better and stronger.

Second, give the grace you desire for yourself to other people. I certainly want people to extend grace to me, and I want them to understand that I’m not perfect. Therefore, I need to extend what I want for myself to other people.

We all know Jesus’ teaching about doing to others as we want done to us. Now, we simply need to do what He called us to do.

We also need to do this because we want other people to treat us with kindness, grace, and mercy.

Third, in your mind maximize the strengths of others and minimize their weaknesses. What we focus on will determine how we think of other people. If we constantly think of their weaknesses, we will tend to see them as difficult and unproductive. When we focus on their strengths, we will see them as a blessing. How you look at other people will determine much of how you relate to them.

In our office we are constantly tweaking our organization and giving people different assignments. We are simply trying to put people in their “sweet spot.” Unless there is insubordination or laziness, most people can make a contribution in their office or place of employment, but they need to be working according to their strengths.

As we help people succeed, their success becomes our success.

Since relationships are tricky, we need to undergird them with prayer and do our best to help other people grow and progress.

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