Prayer Tip--When Relationships Get Difficult

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it costs to stay in relationship with people. Not the easy, fun parts, the laughing over coffee, the inside jokes, the people who just get you. I mean the hard parts. The conversations that leave you drained. The moments when someone you care about hurts you and probably doesn’t even realize it. The times you show up and give and pour yourself out, and it still doesn’t feel like enough.

If I’m being honest, those are the moments I want to pull back. Protect myself. Build a wall and call it a boundary. And sometimes boundaries are the right call, but sometimes what I’m really doing is just trying to avoid the pain that comes with loving people who are imperfect. Which, of course, is all of them. Which, of course, includes me.

I think all relationships require work. Friendships, family, the people you see every day. And I don’t think anyone enjoys the seasons when those relationships hit a rough patch. But when I look back at the people who have been woven into my life, the ones still here and the ones who’ve faded, I’m grateful for every single one of them, because each has shaped me into who I am today.

Here’s what I’m learning, even when it’s hard to live out: the difficult moments in my relationships are often the moments God is doing the most work in me. They give me the chance to practice grace when I’d rather hold a grudge, compassion when I’d rather be right, forgiveness when everything in me wants to keep score. I don’t grow in those things when life is easy. I grow when it costs me something.

In today’s world, it’s so tempting to skip right past disagreement and land in conflict. To let frustration build instead of doing the harder thing, talking it out, staying present, choosing to be in relationship even when it’s uncomfortable. I don’t want to become someone who pulls away every time loving people gets hard. I want to be someone who stays, not because it’s easy, but because I believe God is doing something in the staying.

That doesn’t mean the hurt disappears. It doesn’t mean I stop wishing things were different. But it means I keep showing up, and I keep asking God to give me a love that’s bigger than my frustration, more patient than my pain, and more stubborn than my desire to self-protect.

If you’re in a season where relationships feel heavy, where someone has hurt you, or you’re wondering if the effort you pour into people even matters, I invite you to pray this prayer with me.