Day 221 - Pegs and Relationships

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.

—ROMANS 12:10

I remember as a child being given a toy hammer and pegs sticking out of holes in a piece of wood. I would beat on each peg until it was even with the surface, turn the board over, and do the same again. Many see their relationships this way, full of pegs to be driven down before moving on to the next task. However, a relationship is not a task but something living, something that is never “accomplished.” There is an old proverb about how one can know he (or she) is ready for marriage if first he manages to keep a plant living for one year, then a fish in a bowl alive for a year, and finally a dog or cat thriving for a year. If that can be done and nothing living around him suffers, he is ready for a relationship.