Relationship or Do's and Don'ts

This has been on my mind for some time now. My relationship with God has always been extremely important to me. I feel like that's one of my strengths as a Christian, and person in general. I've really been putting a lot of thought into this over the past few weeks, mainly because I have found myself getting caught up in the do's and don'ts of religion. Now, when I focus on do's and don'ts, the tendancy is to get all caught up in myself. My Christianity becomes all about works, having nothing to do with relationship. These are the times when I begin to become succeptible to feelings of despair and depression, because let's face it, none of us can ever "do" enough to measure up to God's standards. On the flip side, when I focus simply on my relationship with Christ, everything seems to flow a lot smoother. The issue is no longer about whether I am doing this right or that wrong, but knowing and believing that God loves me the way I am! Now, being a mature follower of Christ is many times about self evaluation, finding out where we are at, and what areas we may need to focus and work on a little bit. We do that because we love God, and want to follow Him as closely as we possibly can. That desire ALWAYS stems out of relationship with Him. I think the key to what we are talking about here is balance. We need to have a healthy level of balance between treating God as the sovereign king, creator, Lord, God that He is with reverance and awe, and allowing ourselves the opportunity to crawl up onto His lap and tell him all about our day, desires, and dreams. My guess is that most of us either fall almost completely to one side of this fence or the other. The is one fence that I think we need to straddle. Recently, my convictions have led me to this thought. Sure I spend time every day with God. However, would I pick hanging out with him over watching a movie late at night after my family has gone to bed? There is nothing wrong with watching a movie here and there, but my point is this. We all have room to grow, and this is where I am at right now. I have done this a few times in the past couple of weeks, turning off the tv late at night and just reading my Bible, or opening up my journal. I've gotta be honest with you, I want more of it! I truly desire God to be the #1 priority in my life! And while that is not the case yet on a consistent level, I am happy to feel as if I am growing more towards that each and every day. Life is not just about do's and don'ts. Life is about a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, where your love for Him grows more and more on a consistent basis. That's the legacy I want to leave to my children and to the next generation. What about you?