In our culture, love has become a word with little meaning. We “love” TV shows, football teams, crawfish, iPhones, chocolate, and at times, people. Attempting to love others is difficult because it involves compromise, tension, and occasionally disappointment. Love often eludes us. Today as we conclude our Relationship Toolkit series, we examine not only what love means, but how we learn to love. 1 John 4 provides us a window into how we find love in this life.

Every relationship approaches the breaking point at some in time. No marriage or friendship is beyond a good old-fashioned argument. How we handle those moments of anger says a lot about our faith and even our relationship with Christ. This week we look to the words of Jesus to give us clues for how to handle those moments and emerge with stronger, healthier relationships.

Ask anyone about the biggest challenge for friends, families, or co-workers, and chances are they’ll talk about communication. How we communicate with one another has the power to shape or misshape our relationships. This week, the relationship tool kit offers us a basic understanding of communication and the skills needed to grow our relationships.

Whether we’re with friends, a spouse, children, or at the store, we have deep-rooted expectations for how those relationships will work out. We expect people speak, act, clean, work, and give in certain ways. But sometimes those expectations become our own worst enemy. How do find a way to move from what we expect to what we must accept?

Our fast-paced, technology-filled, hyper-connected world teaches one basic truth: we need relationships. People are hungry for significant, healthy, intentional relationships. Our new series begins with an exploration of why that is true and the toxins that poison our attempts to build those relationships.

Bread is a food we take for granted. Yet for much of history, bread served as the center-piece of the human diet. When Jesus refers to himself as the "Bread of Life," he is making a statement about our need and how we fill that need. When we gather for communion we are reminded of our need and the truth that Jesus is bread for our journey.

We began our series with words from the prophet Isaiah and we end with his wisdom as well. His call to us is clear: “Arise, shine.” It is a call to move out—out from our easy chairs; out from our past; out into the world to burn brightly.

There are moments where we feel like we have to fix the world—or at least our corner of it. We work hard, exert a lot of energy, and focus on the solution. But often our solution is just us. An old story about two women with great needs reminds us there’s a greater power at work than just us.

The Executive Director of the American Red Cross, South Central Mississippi Chapter, talks about the agency's work, locally, nationally and internationally.

Here’s the truth: we all have people we don’t like. Sometimes it’s individuals; at other times it’s entire groupings of people. Dealing with unlovable and unlikeable people was the subject of a vision the apostle Peter had in the Book of Acts—a vision that still speaks to us today.