LoveWorks, Part Two ”Cultivating & Growing Your Relationships” by Bryan & Patricia Hudson

LoveWorks 

Part Two:  Cultivating and Growing Your Relationships

Teaching notes and DISC self-assessment tool: http://newcovenant.org/Cultivating_Growing_Relationships.pdf

2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. 16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 

Because attitudes and relationships need to “grow,” we have to pay attention to the “soil” and foundation of relationships. That soil begins with our own hearts and minds. As Myles Munroe taught, the key to being single or being in a relationship is being whole in yourself. My lesson today will look at relationships from the perspective of cultivating our own hearts. We will address the important of having a good attitude or mindset.

“Cultivate” is a farming term. Cultivation is not only about growing plants. It is mainly about preparing the soil and working the ground to raise good crops.

“A good attitude will not always change our circumstances, but it will always change us.” ~ John Maxwell

Attitude is not what people perceive. It is not something we figure our in others. Attitude is your internal disposition. It is something we figure out in ourselves.

Your attitude or mindset determines your altitude, or how high and far you can go. In relationships we learn to navigate attitudes, moods, and mindsets. We should operate at a higher level of relating spiritually, but no one is purely spiritual. 

2 Cor. 5:16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the word "attitude" means "an internal position or feeling with regard to something else." Other words often used as synonyms are: "disposition, feeling, mood, opinion, sentiment, temper, tone, perspective, frame of mind, outlook, view, or morale."

Airplane pilots often use "attitude" to describe their relationship the horizon during flight and with the runway for landing.

We have to manage the “version” of ourselves and our spouses and high level relationships.

Ephesians 4:22 NIV, "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off the old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds." 

Ephesians 4:2-3, TLB. "Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's
faults because of your love. Be led together by the Holy Spirit to be at peace with one another." 

We have to pay attention to personality types, both within ourselves and others.

DISC is a well understood and widely accepted model of behavior styles. The letters DISC stand for:

DOMINANT

INFLUENCE

STEADINESS

CONSCIENTIOUS

DISC measures a person’s natural, hard-wired behavioral style.  It focuses on a person’s natural, most comfortable way of doing things. This model is mainly designed to help each person become self-aware and then to respect the behavior styles of others