Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”  How long would your marriage and relationship with your wife last if you neglected to communicate and ignored her for six weeks or even six days?  What about neglected relationships between a father and his children?  The same applies at work, school, with friends and in all other settings.  God made us to have relationships and it began in the Garden where Adam and Eve had a personal relationship with God and with each other at the beginning.  This was the relationship that God designed for man but they neglected to keep it according to God’s command.  They listened to an outside enemy, neglected their relationship with God and developed a relationship with the enemy.  Today, neglect is the number one reason that relationships of all kinds go bad.

 As Christian men and leaders, we cannot neglect our relationships first with God, then our family members and then all others with whom we work and interact.  How do we neglect our relationships?  We do so by failing in our priorities, our communications, our commitments, our coasting and failure to work on them.  A good relationship is good because the people in the relationship never stop working on it.  This starts with our relationship to God and if it begins to become neglected and not be what it should be, it is not His fault but ours.  Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  We must not neglect to spend time with him, to speak with him in prayer and to read his Word to us daily.  Do you neglect to spend time with your family, to speak with them and to listen to their words?  We often get so busy that we “busy and neglect God and those whom we love right out of our lives.”  Neglect is defined as carelessness, disregard, disrespect, indifference and inattention.  Don’t let any of these interfere with your important relationships in life and with God.