Expectations

Aug 27, 2014 by Jim and Jerolyn Bogear

 

Our daily lives are full of expectations. When I hit the light switch on my wall, I expect a light to come on. When I turn the key in the ignition of my car, I expect my car to start. And for some reason when I’m traveling 70 miles per hour on an eight lane interstate, I expect everyone to stay in their respective lanes. (Okay, that’s not an expectation. That’s blind faith.) We can’t escape having expectations in our life multiple times a day.

But where expectations become complicated is when we have them in our relationships.

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A Neighborly Connection

Jul 7, 2014 by Jim and Jerolyn Bogear

 

Summer is a great time to get to know your neighbors. Stop and think. How many of the families on your block do you know? If you are in an apartment, your floor or wing? If in a condo, your unit? You get the idea. Break it down to a 10-12 families that live around you. Do you know them? Have you tried?

We just had the 4^th of July last week and every year we shoot off fireworks on our street with our neighbors. Fortunately, we live on a street that is like a cul-de-sac — no one else needs to drive on our street. So we set up ladders in the middle of the street and set off our fireworks together. (For you mid-westerners, we are not allowed air-born fireworks in California. Ladders are our way of getting our “fountains” a little higher and more festive.) It’s a very impromptu gathering at sundown, but we all love coming together every year. It’s another way for us to connect.

So why is it so important to connect with your neighbors?

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Building Circles of Encouragement

Jul 2, 2014 by Jim and Jerolyn Bogear

 

How many times have you felt like you were supposed to do something, but didn’t do it? For me, too many to count.

But today, I did one. I wrote to someone who I haven’t seen in years and probably doesn’t even remember me. But this person is in a tough place and just needed some encouragement knowing God loves them and that someone cares.

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How Does Social Networking Affect Relationships?

Jun 23, 2014 by Jim and Jerolyn Bogear

 

Recently we wrote about Facebook and marriages.

One of our ongoing questions and research has to do with relationships and social media.

Can we genuinely have effective relationships via social networks/media? Specifically, can we have true “community,” our definition being healthy and deepening relationships, deal effectively with conflict resolution, and have honest, genuine, and authentic communication through these technological vehicles?

Indicators are the more we attempt to connect through these social outlets the more lonely we are in today’s society. We are not out to determine a yes or no, but sincerely ask the question. Our generation and even the one that is following us, for the most part, had social media/networking enter our world so it is a new way of connecting for most of us. What about those who are growing up with it as a regular part of their lives?

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Facebook and Marriages

Jun 16, 2014 by Jim and Jerolyn Bogear

 

In an article back in 2012 Wall Street Journal stated, “More than a third of divorce filings last year contained the word Facebook, according to a U.K. survey by Divorce Online, a legal services firm.”

The article goes on to state, “Affairs happen with a lightning speed on Facebook,” says K. Jason Krafsky, who authored the book “Facebook and Your Marriage” with his wife Kelli. In the real world, he says, office romances and out-of-town trysts can take months or even years to develop. “On Facebook,” he says, “they happen in just a few clicks.” The social network is different from most social networks or dating sites in that it both re-connects old flames and allows people to “friend” someone they may have met only once in passing. “It puts temptation in the path of people who would never in a million years risk having an affair,”

What about us? In looking at social media these days it has become a challenge for many relationships, i.e. re-connecting with old friends, so that there is indeed a strong temptation.

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