Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 738 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
The Value of Relationships - Ask Gramps

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week, wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 738 of our Trek time for our Philosophy Friday series.  Each Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life, and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.  As we continue on this trek called life sometimes we have questions about life, so our Friday trek is a time where we can ‘Ask Gramps.’   Gramps will answer questions that you would like to ask your dad or granddad, but for whatever reason, this is not possible.  No matter how old you are, I know that all of us would like the opportunity to ask dad or gramps questions about life in many areas.  We will address areas such as finances, relationships, health/fitness, business/work, home repairs/renovations, seasons of life, spiritual/Biblical questions, and any others areas that come our way.  As your fellow sojourner and mentor on this trek that we call life, it is my goal to provide you with practical wisdom and advice about any area of life. It is crucial that I receive a constant flow of questions so please submit your questions to guthrie@wisdom-trek.com, or send me a message at the bottom of any page on wisdom-trek.com or text me at 740.350.5732 and I will answer your questions on our Friday podcast.

We are broadcasting from our studio at ‘The Big House’ in Marietta, Ohio.  This past week I was in Arizona working on our construction project.  It was a very busy, productive week and we were able to lay out the ‘Schedule of Values’ for the entirety of Phase II.  I am sure that we will have some modifications and adjustments, but we made very good progress.  Just like we create a schedule of the values within a project, we personally need to take the time to create values within a relationship.  Especially with a spouse or close friend.  So the question for today is:

Hey Gramps, “How can I create a valuable relationship with my spouse or close friend?”
The Value of Relationships
Before you can value others properly, you must first value yourself.  You will never love or value another person fully if you feel that you are not valuable and loved.  In order to do this, you must understand that your value is not necessarily based on who you are or what you have accomplished up to this point in your life, but whose you are.  As a Christ follower, we are created by God to be bearers of His image.  The Apostle Paul instructs us in Ephesians 2:8-10 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.Once you understand that your value is based on the fact that God made you and considers you valuable, then you can realize that you are truly valuable. Jesus explained the concept of why important it is for us to love ourselves so that we can properly love others.  In Mark 12:30-31 it says this: And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

Paul drills down even further when he says in Galatians 5:14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

So it begs the question, how can you love others if you do not love yourself?  You can’t.  If we all practiced this verse, there would be few problems in the world.The relationship between a husband and wife goes even deeper,