Healthy Relationships Week kicked off today at Ouachita with chapel speaker Dr. Guy Grimes sharing key ideas from his book, Relationship Matters: Foundations for Lasting and Healthy Relationships.
The main challenge for students was based on the statistic that the United States leads the world in the belief of real love, with 86% of college students claiming that they would not marry without real love.
Grimes proposed that rather than this feeling or emotion of real love, the key to building and sustaining lasting relationships lies in understanding love and forgiveness.
Dr. Grimes’ first point was that people can have a healthy and lasting relationship if they know what love is and practice it. Understanding that love is more than a feeling and recognizing the bigger commitment is necessary.
Next, Dr. Grimes talked about learning and practicing forgiveness. He defined forgiveness as a combination of mercy and grace, and as giving up the right to punish the other person for what they have done.
“Healthy Relationship Week at Ouachita is a time we emphasize the impact the good news of Jesus has on all of our relationships, from friendship to roommates to family to dating and marriage,” James Taylor, Director of Campus Ministries who lead the introductions at this morning’s chapel, said.
“It is one concrete way that we recognize that our love of God must affect how we relate to the many people we will cross paths with during our lives.”
The week’s events include Refuge Thursday with special guest speakers, Jared and Mary Farley. Jared is the Campus Minister at Henderson, and Mary is a Ouachita graduate. This weekend there is a retreat sponsored by the Elrod Center for engaged and married couples.
Look for more updates about HRW throughout the week.
By Rachel Wicker
