Over the years, many people have been attracted to Life Model Works for the benefits of joyful relationships. Here are 10 ways Life Model Works helps relationships build and grow.
- We each do our own inventory of our relational health, growth, points of irritation or stagnation, freely deciding with new safe and loving support to venture, and receive the help of friends, beyond where we were able to go alone.
- Learning to keep our relational circuits open for the love of God, self and others keeps us in the transformation zone, satisfied simply by serving and pleasing God and those closest to us.
- As we use our gifts to give and receive life, we learn in long-hoped-for ways that we belong, even more than we may have felt in our church, workplace, home, or birth family.
- Joy through healthy and healing core relationships turbo-charges spiritual growth. Jesus said, “I came that My (abundant life – Jn. 10:10) and joy may be in you, and that your joy would be complete.” (John 15:11)
- Through new habits of mindful living we are able to start “returning to joy” from distressing emotions – like anger, shame or despair – that previously got us stuck and stunted growth.
- We are inspired by others’ vulnerable confessions and stories of redemption to work on healing and develop hope, love, faith and joy.
- New “joy strength” gives us the capacity to face hard and painful times in life that used to derail us. We begin to heal from old patterns of thought and behavior.
- We come to see our weaknesses not as something to mask, deny or defend against, but as opportunities to lean on God and others. Being known and accepted more fully in this way becomes tremendously liberating.
- We learn to synchronize with others in the kitchen or office, being led by God’s spirit to “speak the truth in love,” (Eph. 4:15) putting harmonious relationships first in our priorities and increasing our productivity, joy, and satisfaction in life.
- We gladly turn away from sources of pseudo-joy, like TV, food or vices that never fully satisfied us ,and we begin to want to invest in human relationships and the good of our community.
Thanks to the gospel, and God’s and our brothers’ and sisters’ active presence in our lives, we actually become “good news” wherever we go, able to share both the story of Jesus and the story of our own pathway to healing.
