Our Relationships, Our Prosperity – Rev Dr Jacqueline Triche Atkins
This recording features the Sunday Talk portion of the service. For the full service watch here.
DESCRIPTION
Lisa Nichols has written, “When you sit down at the end of your life and reflect on its value, you will realize that your real treasures were in your relationships and not just in your possessions.” So the question for you right now is “Do you realize how prosperous you are?” Join me this Sunday as we discuss how to value relationships.
SUMMARY
Relationships are the true measure of prosperity and fulfillment in life.
The key points are:
– Relationships, not material possessions, are the real treasures at the end of life. Maintaining meaningful connections with others is the path to true prosperity.
– Relationships must be actively managed and nourished, just as one would care for other assets. This involves setting clear expectations, communicating openly, and forgiving transgressions.
– Healthy relationships provide emotional support, career opportunities, reduced stress, and improved mental health – all contributing to overall wellbeing and success.
– The biblical examples of Ruth and Naomi, Paul and Timothy, and David and Jonathan illustrate the transformative power of supportive relationships built on mutual respect and commitment.
– Ultimately, one’s true wealth is measured not by material possessions, but by the quality and depth of one’s relationships.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Triche Atkins:
As I walked out the door, my husband was wonderfully cleaning out for my car and he said, Laurel has made a transition. Who? Not my Laurel. And it’s one of a friendship that you may not see them often, but when you do, it’s like we just graduated from high school, girl, what’s going on? What you been doing? And so we know that she is on her way and we send her along a way to the next adventure in living. As Johnny Coleman would say, we know that she is absolutely laurels, absolutely doing wonderfully well. And even though she didn’t get my permission to leave, she left the stage of my life. Anyway. It’s okay because relationships are forever. Hey, I know that she is living and we’re going to start this morning talking about relationships and I want to talk about the slide one. Is that up there?
Yeah, let’s do slide one. I don’t know. If not, you can hear me say it. Prosperity is the out-picturing of substance in our affairs. Everything in the universe for is for us. Nothing is against us. We must know that. Everywhere we go, we meet. Listen, this is from Ernest Holmes. He’s describing prosperity. We meet friendship. That’s relationships. Folks. We meet love. That’s relationship folks, human interests, that’s relationships and helpfulness. That’s relationships. Life is ever giving of itself. We must receive, utilize and extend the gift, success and prosperity our spiritual attributes belonging to all. But guess what? Not necessarily used by all people. I just love that. I wanted to see what Ernest Holmes was saying when it comes to prosperity, because this is the month you all are looking at and talking about intentional living, intentional giving, abundance. Now we have Lisa’s guiding us in that.
And so when I looked at that, it made me recognize that so much, not just for Lisa Nichols and we’re going to learn a little bit about Y Van, but for Ernest Holmes, prosperity was about relationships. It was about much more than the dollar or the beautiful house. It was about relationships. And in slide two, Lisa Nichols kind of confirms this for me. When you sit down at the end of your life and reflect on its value, you’ll realize that your real treasures were aware. You really at that point, I promise you, I promise you, Laurel did not care about the dollar in her bank or the houses. She cared about those relationships. She wanted them around her when she was making this transition. The real treasures were in your relationships and not just in your possessions.
Think about that as we go through this morning. And I just want to say the music was so perfect. It was so perfect because it was about relationships. We’re going to get to that. There is, and some of you may have heard this, it was on the TikTok. I don’t listen to it often, but one of my team members sent it. So my team members who are here, come on, put your hands together for the Gold Rush team members. She sent this to someone whose birthday it was. And I thought as I was preparing for this lesson, I said, this is perfect. And I’ll tell you why. After I go through it, it talks about Babumba tribe in South Africa. It’s a tribe in South Africa, and it tells you they have a ritual. It’s a phenomenal ritual, which when a person acts irresponsibly or harmful, he is placed in the center of a village alone and unfettered.
All work ceases. And every man and woman in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual. Then each man and woman and child in the tribe speaks in affirmations to the accused, sees in the center, they’re all around and they speak in affirmations to the accused. Each recalling the good thing the person in the center of the circle has done in his lifetime. Each incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy is recounted. All positive attributes, good deeds, strengths and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length. This tribal ceremony often lasts for several days. The tribe believes each human comes into the world as good, and we might say perfect and complete each only desiring peace, joy, happiness, and dignity. But sometimes when we are so focused on trying to achieve success and money and prosperity, we make mistakes.
But the tribe, when he made this mistake, didn’t throw ’em away, never throws anyone away. The tribe does not throw away the person the mistakes they de deemed are cry for help. So they come together and all who have been in relationship with them, that’s all the people around in the circle come together to connect him with his true nature, a cry for he forgotten who he is. So the tribe comes together to remind him of what he has forgotten, who he truly is. They come together until he remembers the truth of which he has been temporarily disconnected. I am good. I am prosperous. I am now. At the end, the tribal circle is broken. A joyous celebration takes place and the person is symbolically and literally welcome back into the tribe.
As I was preparing, I said, these are all reflecting his relationships. They’re standing around and talking and letting him and reminding him and affirming. These are all reflecting his relationships, his wealth, his prosperity. And out of these relationships are those who held on to his true nature when he had forgotten those who remind him that he is good, those who hold onto his true nature and his good when he had forgotten them. Think about that. That’s real relationship. Those who reminded him of the ancestors’ blood running through his body who passed on the resilience and the light for him to keep on going to find his way out of the darkness of the good who of the God he was reminded of the God who stepped in on his behalf with divine intervention. They let him know you are never alone. You are never alone. You are always, always, always in relationship.
You are always in relationship. Therefore, you always have access to your prosperity. But are you recognizing your prosperity? Are you using your prosperity? In slide three, Lisa Nichols reminds us, your relationships are powerful. They are core to every aspect of your life. They let you prosper and enjoy your prosperity. Relationships influences your money, your health, feeling good. They’re just, they’re key. They’re key for they are your prosperity. Now, how many ways do you know your prosperity? How many ways do you know your assets? IE your relationship? Emotional support, enhancing overall wellbeing. That’s a strong relationship. Maybe creating opportunities for career and that’s advancements and financial growth. Networking relationships. Maybe it’s to contribute to increasing happiness with a drive for productivity, healthy personal relationships or maybe it’s sharing resources and knowledge, fostering innovation and success, collaborative relationships, partnerships. What about that one that reduces stress and improves your decision making in the business context. Trust and cooperation in relationship. And what about that one? That one can provide you long-term benefits both personally and professionally.
And the one I love, the one that improves mental health, healthy relationships link greater to greater productivity and success. Those are all relationships. And relationships are your prosperity. How rich are you? How rich are you? Yet as with all of our assets, our relationships must be managed by us. Assets would provide us in a variety of ways and so do relationships. Okay, ALA says it this way, Y vans that writes, the only relationship that we are ever having is a relationship with ourselves, which then follows, if I don’t treat myself well, the only thing that’s going to come into my life will be those who live up to my standard.
Think about that. Think about that. We’re talking about relationships. We’re talking about your prosperity. We’re talking about assets. Are you intentionally managing your assets? Are you intentionally managing your relationships so that you are intentionally living? This month is about intentional living, and when we are living intentionally, we are yielding our prosperity. If the prosperity or stocks and bonds or real estate, you would ask certain questions for managing those assets. Likewise, managing your relationships. There’s some questions you need to ask. Whom do you spend time with? Are they people around you? Are the people around you and how do they make you feel? Do they make you feel safe, emotionally confident? Who are the people you can confide in who allows you to take off your superhero costume and just be you? Do you recognize that as prosperity? And what about the people in your life that really ground you allow you to recalibrate? Is that understood? As value as your prosperity, understand intentionally living is to demonstrate prosperity. Do you create clear expectations so that your friends look like two or more people? You all have found a place in the middle somewhere that’s enjoyable for everybody in the relationship. Nichols emphasizes that a thriving atmosphere reinforced by meaningful connections and a solid support network is crucial for the prosperity and growth of your life.
And so she’s saying, you got to advocate for intentionally cultivating connections that enhance your personal growth, your expanded perspectives, and offer steadfast encouragement on your journey toward a prosperous life. Ernest Holmes perspective on relationships, their all expressions of the divine interconnectedness of all things. Think about that. Every relationship is an expression of the divine interconnectedness of all things. God’s in the midst of it. Tell me, that’s not your prosperity. Tell me. You’re not recognizing the gift that’s there for you. And the question comes back again, I’m going to ask because I want you really, as I was preparing, I had to thank you because I had to think, what am I doing with some relationships? Am I managing my relationships? Am I managing my assets well?
Am I letting my partner be himself too often? The thing that think that we love is for the partner to think like us. Let your partner be him or herself. Yes, we want to be going in the same direction, but not necessarily at the same pace or perhaps not even in the same vehicle. You are not looking for a twin. You are looking according to Lisa Nichols for a match. A compliment looking for harmony. And harmony is simply another way to express prosperity. If you have dreams and aspirations, your partnership always believe in them with you and celebrate with you. But you should celebrate with him or her or them in their dreams, in their aspirations. That’s prosperity manifesting. What’s this thing about expectation? Last week, Reverend Amy spoke of consciousness. We create consciousness and then from there, our path to prosperity or not. I, LA Van Zant writes in her book, the Value in the Valley, the greatest lesson teaches us is that we always get what we expect.
We always get what we expect. Consciousness reflects our expectations. So understand, as you look at your relationships, are you managing that assets such that you’re expecting wonderful and great things from it? Whatever your relationship experiences, it is your package of prosperity or not, and are you expecting great things? So what needs to be cleaned up? What needs to be cleaned up? So what needs so that you can clearly see you have value? We need to see that we have value. I needed to know before Laurel decided to make her transition that that relationship was a valuable asset of mine.
What needs to be cleaned up so that you can clearly see you have value? Do you have relationships you no longer need? You might, and it’s like anything else in your closet that you no longer need or in your jewelry, wherever it reminds me of something that no longer has value, get rid of it. Let it go out of your life in this month of enunciation. Release it to increase your overall value. What relationships need to be repaired to truly reflect prosperity in your life? What relationships need to be repaired? As you sit here right now, if we’re in a workshop, I’d tell you to pull out a sheet of paper and a pencil and start writing them down. And what’s the repair that’s necessary? Caring for your prosperity, what’s occurring within you, your thoughts, your words, your actions. Are they continuing to enrich your consciousness?
To maintain, to grow? The manifestations called your prosperity, your relationships. Maintenance is key to your prosperity, packaged in and as your relationships watering the relationship with love, watering the relationship with love through acts of kindness and with generosity and with grace and with compassion. Tilling the soil to clean out the weeds. The weeds are in your relationship. Oh yeah. Clean out the weeds and throw them out. In other words, I love what Lisa Nichols says, don’t keep score. They made you mad last week by doing this. You need to get over, have the conversation and throw it out because you don’t want to bring it up next week when you have another discussion. And how do I know that relationships reflect prosperity? According to Lisa, as I said earlier, at the end of your human experience, it’s not your bank account, it’s your relationships. You’re going to see how valuable they were and how valuable you are.
In other words, nourish and nurture your relationships to increase, to increase your prosperity, nurture and nurture and nurture and nurture or get rid of and get rid of, if that’s what’s called for. There are a couple of books, a couple of relationships in the Bible. I just want to lift up as I close by. They were just, they are so they were relationships. We got ’em in the Bible, but they were relationships. Okay? And one that Ruth and Naomi, now if you want to know a valuable asset, you could ask if even either Ruth or Naomi were here today. You could ask them about that relationship and was it valuable? And it really exemplified a most profound relationship, okay? It had you recognized that your relationship, the value of it, may require you to step out of your comfort zone.
Your relationship may require you to step out of your comfort zone, but in stepping out of it, you create more value in your life. And as it was said, emphasize the transformative power of supportive relationships. Understand that. And what about, I love you may not recognize this one as quickly, Paul and Timothy, Paul and Timothy in first and second Timothy, that the relationship was steeped in genuine care and commitment. The care and commitment alone made it a valuable asset to both of them. What about your relationship is the care and the commitment there in your relationships that give them the quality, the value you recognize this care and commitment illustrated how intentional you can be in a relationship, how important it is, but how intentional you have to be in your care and in your commitment.
Their interactions revealed their authentic relationship. Relationships thrive on mutual respect and encouragement, mutual respect and encouragement. Reinforcing the idea that spiritual growth is what a not a solitary endeavor in your relationship. Do you recognize the value in your own spiritual growth? Or is it one that you need to clean out the closet? The last one that was, as I listened to what Lisa Nichols was saying and read it, David and Jonathan, they had a relationship in the book of First Samuel. And what was so interesting about that, Jonathan gave up what some might say is something really important, but was critical for him was his support of David. Okay?
The unwavering support that Jonathan had for David, it’s in your relationship somewhere. Are you recognizing it? It’s a reminder that unwavering support of genuine friendships, that’s what it’s built on. Unwavering support on the willingness to put another’s needs above our own aspirations. Those are assets. And think about what you would do if you had a saveable coat, how you would spend a zillion dollars to have it clean, stored, et cetera, because that’s an asset that’s important. Or maybe if you had a Give me a fancy car. Jaguar. Yeah, Jaguar. You would have it stored and you’d spend money and whatever. Those are all good. And indeed, I’m not saying if you have one, that’s good, but what we all have, what we don’t recognize, but what we need to value a little bit more are relationships. They indeed, as Lisa Nichols says, at the end of the day, when you decide to go on to the next adventure and living, you’re going to look around and determine how rich was I? Amen. So it is, okay.
Let us just for a minute, pray a bit about relationships. If you would like, take a deep breath, close your eyes, get seated comfortably, and let the whole spirit of God hear your cry, hear your words, that you are seeking to cultivate open and honest communications in all your relationships. God, we pray that you would grant us the ability to communicate openly and honestly laying bare our thoughts, our desires and fears without, with, oh gracious Lord, I long for our relationships, all of mine, to be marked by transparency and authenticity, where there is no need for mask or hiding. Oh, may our words, God, towards each other be a true reflection of our hearts, expressing our joys and our sorrows, and our victories and our struggles. I ask, gracious God, I ask for your guidance and wisdom that we may be sensitive to your leading and obedient to your will as we seek better communication in our relationships.
Help us to remember God, that you are always near. You are ready to listen. You are ready to respond. God, you can guide that which is need to be guided God, so that our relationship is built on a foundation of trust and love, of trust in love. And God, as we move forward, lemme just ask for one other thing, God, that’s to allow me to be guided by the Holy Spirit to forgiveness, to release any and all so-called transgression, God, that my relationship made me purified, that it may be indeed absolutely all that it was intended to be. We lift you up right now. God, we thank you for as we pray, we know the value of our relationships of growing. You are in the midst. You are the connecting tissue. And so we know the value of our relationships are real and they’re valuable, God. And we thank you. We thank you for those wonderful assets. Lord, help us to take care of them. Help us keep the weeds out. Help us to keep the love growing. Help us to know right here, right now, that we’re so very rich. We’re so very prosperous because we have so many wonderful relationships. Thank you God. Thank you. Thank you God. And so thank you Reverend Jackie.