My husband, Jeff and I have a marriage that is full of come backs. We just celebrated 25 years of love, mercy, and grace. We knew how to fall in love, but staying in love was something we had to be committed to. We were clueless when we got started. We definitely had a few hard years, but we chose to fight for each other and not with each other. It is amazing that through our brokenness something beautiful was made. We made a decision to celebrate the the small victories, even though there were times of disconnection and miscommunication. Times when we said and did things that would cause defeat in our lives. We decided to be committed to God’s Love and not to our feelings and failures. In all relationships, but especially those that are closest to us, we have to decide to put away resentment, anger, bitterness, revenge, and blame. You must choose to put on the 1 Corinthians 13 kind of Love.
There is a point in everyone’s life where pressure comes, and you either shatter internally or externally. This is the breaking point that you can stay in or have an amazing come back. You can’t have any relationship that lasts twenty, thirty, forty years, if it has never hit a breaking point. Everyone experiences breaking points in their lives. What makes us successful is how we handle this breaking point. Every time life runs you to a breaking point, you will either give up and quit, you will back up and run, or you will say this is too hard, too emotional, too stressful and you will back away. One thing that the enemy is trying to do when you are at a breaking point is to isolate you and make you stop. We have to remember that we are better together.
Relationships are the greatest resource and has the equity that we need in this world today.
If you are not relational then you are losing resources. Ask the woman with the issue of blood in Matthew 9:20-22. “Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.”
If you don’t learn how to touch people, you can’t stop the issues that exist internally or externally in your life, in your family, in your church, and in your business.
Not only do we operate in the earth through partnerships, everything in the Kingdom operates on partnerships. No one, no fish, no plant, no whale, no bird, no giant can be fruitful by themselves. The more you isolate yourself from relationships, the less chance you have to be fruitful.
The greater the pressure, the more we isolate ourselves. When we isolate ourselves we terminate our dreams without even knowing it. It is a choice to be a good friend, partner, spouse, parent, child, etc… The dream that God put in your heart can’t give birth by itself. We were made for relationships, for community, joint heirs with Christ, Jesus with a purpose for partners.
The only thing wrong with your dream is you are trying to do it by yourself.
Partnerships are best when they form intersections rather than running parallel, they need a common denominator and that is people. So, in order to move things along more quickly and productively, understand that you don’t have to see eye to eye with someone, or a situation. You just need to cross paths at the intersection of purpose. The more you cross paths at the intersection of purpose, the more profitable you become. Purpose and profitability are tied together, and until you understand purpose you will never be profitable. Once you understand purpose, your mind can see the ability to partner.
The reason why most of us can’t partner is because we are after profit without purpose. It is about the goal. It doesn’t matter who carries the ball, it is about the touchdown. We can’t be afraid to pass the ball to someone else as long as it serves the purpose. You have to keep goals, visions, and dreams to fuel the passion for your purpose.
So if you are reading this right now, you may be asking what your next step is. You may be asking “How can I get from where I am at to where God has called me to be?” You are at a new breaking point. Everything that you have gone through in the past has prepared you for what your future has in store to benefit you. You have to stop cheating on your future by being consumed with your past. You also have to decide that quitting is not an option.
This happened for us in our marriage a few years ago. We hit a major breaking point, but decided we had to much invested and we wanted a come-back and not a set-back. When we hit this breaking point, we began to be intentional with our relationship. We had amazing Christian counselors. We talked to our parents and Pastors. We read books. We consulted with Spirit led leaders. We surrounded ourselves with faith friends. We chose to communicate and have hard conversations. We talked heart to heart instead of hurt to hurt. We made a point to dream together. We decided to forgive quickly. We decided to look through the lens of Love.
When we took our wedding vows for better or worse, sickness and in health, death till you part, we meant them. We had to realize our wedding day looked different from our breaking point moments, but we were covenant partners. You don’t stay together because you are happy every day and romantic all the time. You don’t stay in a business partnership because you agree all the time. You stay in partnership through all the tough times because you have so much emotional, financial and spiritual equity in the relationship. That equity has to mean that you are not willing to bankrupt the relationship for a temporary gratification. You have invested in it, and you are waiting for the harvest to come in your life. Don’t let the enemy take your territory. We are not leaving the partnership. We are going to choose Love- choose Covenant, choose Unity, choose Purpose.
God orders your relationships. He brings you into relationships with people, places, things and corporations that may even leave you in shock. Because God has ordered your steps, He brings you in strategic alignment for a divine purpose, and how you manage that relationship will determine your destiny. Don’t let your breaking points be breakdowns. Let them be breakthroughs.
If you would like to continue on this journey with Allison, check out her podcast at any of your favorite locations below!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-allison-bramlett-podcast/id1516370534?uo=4
https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zb3VuZGNsb3VkLmNvbS91c2Vycy9zb3VuZGNsb3VkOnVzZXJzOjgzMTk3NDkxNC9zb3VuZHMucnNz
Allison Bramlett 