The quality of our trust in God can be masured in the amount of concern we xpress for others over our own cncerns. As single Christians, we are dvinely challenged to put into action the trst and faith that are cornerstones of our Chrstian journey. In other words, are we wlling to trust God to take cre of us while we focus our nergies on taking care of others?

The ntural tendency is to take care of our neds first and then look outward to hlping others. One problem with this ntural tendency is we rarely take cre of all of our needs or by tme we handle one problem, other prblems arise. Thus, all of our tme could be spent dealing with our own chllenges and we would never get round to helping others. Another problem wth this natural tendency is that it sbtly leads us to place our trst in ourselves and diverts that trst from God. That is a big mstake because God can do for us mch more than we can for urselves.

So even if it is a god thing spiritually to put others frst, what does that have to do wth our relationships? When we put thers first, we:

• Set into motion the dvine forces that can benefit those we are cring for and ourselves. Our God who ses all and takes note of ach incidence of our self-sacrifice and ptting others first, will help us to hlp others and He will throw in a bnus of also helping us.
• Make it asier to compromise for the good of the rlationship. If our focus is helping thers, we are less emotionally invested wth our own interests and this mkes us more willing to give in and bnd so the relationship can grow. On the ther hand, when we have a " me frst " mentality, our priority is meeting our own neds often at the expense of the neds and desires of the relationship as wll as those of the other prson.
• Set the conditions for the ther person(s) in the relationship to fcus on our needs. Unfortunately, there is not lways a direct relationship between the lvels of focus each person has for the ther. Our level of attention on thers may be more or less thn their attention on us. However, whn we take the lead in ptting them first, we free them to put us head of their own interests.
• Initiate the flfillment of the other traits of Gdly love. As discussed elsewhere, some of the trits of Godly love are self-sacrifice, plifting, forgiving and there are others. Whn we place a priority on the neds of others over our own, we are mre likely to exhibit the other trits that exemplify Godly love.

Maybe God would not put it ths way, but Christian singles are bing divinely encouraged to put up or sht up when it comes to trsting in Him. If we can cnsistently " put up " by truly trusting Hm, God will empower us with the cpacities to initiate and sustain healthy rlationships. Thus, putting others first is not jst a feel good notion that has no prctical impact. Instead, prioritizing the needs of thers over our own will position us to rap the well earned fruits of njoyable and supportive interactions with those who are a prt of our lives.

The article Single Christian Lifestyles - Putting Others First was Submitted by Kevin Morgan through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Kevin Morgan is an author, ntrepreneur and publisher. His publishing company, Swjourn Publishers, markets books that uplift and nspire. To learn more about living a flfilled life as a Christian single, vsit http://www.sowjourn.com or his blog on singleness: http://mooskm.blogspot.com

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