Self-help or Relationship?

Over the past couple of months, I have noticed in myself a propensity to get a bit carried away in areas that need improvement in my life. I'll work really hard at something until I'm worn out. If I get good results, I'll credit my relationship with God even though I feel so good about it (like I have done something major all on my own). And of course, God does get the credit because it is He that enables me to do anything at all. However, I have started examining how I view my relationship with Christ. Is it, in fact, a relationship, or is it a catalyst to self-improvement? Sure, I should want to be better, but not in a way that causes me to "use" God. I ran across a quote this morning in a book that a friend sent a few pages of to me.

"Even religion itself may be manipulated into becoming an elaborate and systematic evasion of the living God, and ultimately a system of self deification. What may have begun, like falling in love, as a deeply sincere and thrilling personal encounter, can quickly degenerate into sterile self-centeredness. And so the worship of God may be changed into a quest for human fulfillment; obedience to God becomes enslavement to one's own dreams and passions; the Kingdom of God is translated to mean a Utopian society; and so on. In one way or another, religion may be used not to glorify God at all, but actually to shift the emphasis from God to man, and to do so in a way that drips with piety." From Mike Mason's The Mystery of Marriage

When I walk with my husband, we talk, laugh, get to know each other a little bit better. Oh, that my walk with Christ would be so sweet and full of talk and laughter and getting to know Him better that all else pales in comparison, that my worship in and out of church would be pleasing to Him, that the rearing of my children and maintaining of my household would glorify Him, that any changes in me would ultimately be about His glory and not my pride and fulfillment.