Commitment. Love. Desire. Compassion. Patience. Passion. Are these foreign words to you or someone you know? Well join the club. From the time we are born, we are sent messages about relationships and what the necessary ingredients are to have a successful one. Many people I know including myself come from a single parent home where we received maternal and in some cases paternal love. But few of us were brought up with a set of parents who demonstrated the love shared by a husband or wife.

Television and music teaches us the ends and outs of sexual attraction, but “relationships” - that is a somewhat foreign and misunderstood word. Commitment, love, desire, compassion, patience and passion are all some of the ingredients necessary for a relationship; not individually but collectively.

Sex offers momentary euphoria, but why is it that many of us seek after this form of euphoria only? Sex is a quick fix for the unfaithful and uncommitted. Yes it is important for a happy and healthy marriage, but like alcohol to the alcoholic, sex is just a momentary relief for those desperately seeking true love, affection and appreciation. We can laugh and joke about sex all day long. However, when we decide to be real with ourselves, true emotional and spiritual fulfillment is still not there.

What can we do to experience a true relationship? This may not be popular in this day and age of sexuality, but people should push themselves to attain more than a good ‘lay;’ perhaps raise their expectations a bit. We are worth more than we give ourselves credit for. We are worthy of a relationship that contains commitment, love, desire, compassion, patience and passion. Once we change our mindset about our own self worth, we will find that we are drawn to more people worthy of relationships with one another.