Cultivating Relationships

I define relationships as the connections between people or the connection of people and knowledge and I am utterly enamored with relationships.  In my small amount of spare time, I pore over the bonds we weave between ourselves and others, between ourselves and Heaven, between ourselves and ideas, between others and their ideas.  So it should come as no surprise that I view life’s purpose in terms of relationships.  Last week I posted my framework of belief but I’m going to simplify those thoughts further.   I believe the salient feature of mortality is the opportunity to cultivate relationships in a non-heavenly sphere; relationships with God, with ourselves and with others.  Apart from the grandeur of heaven, we are left to experiment with principles that make good relationships.  And ultimately, we rely heavily on the Savior for insight, example, strength and forgiveness in our pursuit of charitable relationships because we will fall short.  In all of them.  Repeatedly.  And because our ability to choose those relationships does not exist in a vacuum, we will be hurt and injured and bumped around as other people work out their understanding of beautiful relationships.  But the work of Jesus Christ was to bridge those gaps for us and to condescend and illustrate how Heaven operates in the hopes that we would learn about how to create eternal relationships here.  So that when our souls are lifted to heaven and they leave behind all things earthly,  the connections we have made to God pull us there and the connections we have here make it hard to go.   Ultimately, I believe we continue to invest in all of those intangible relationships beyond this life.  And in my mind, those relationships (including the bonds we’ve created with knowledge) are the only things that will accompany us out of this world.  I honestly think all of the worthwhile aspects of worship and life exist to support our ability to choose to cultivate those three crucial relationships (God, self, others).   What do you think?