“Unconditional Love”; I hear that term often; use it quite a bit myself. Most of the time I’m using the term to describe the Father’s love toward us. It’s a self-explanatory phrase. It just means that the love being described is given without conditions. If you can turn your feelings toward someone on and off depending on their behavior or attitude then, obviously, it can’t be labeled ‘unconditional’.

But we live in a fickle world that is very performance based! You act right….I’ll love you….you mess up, I’ll flip the switch! That kind of on again, off again attitude robs both parties of one of the things that’s the most important in life! ……..to be loved unconditionally. And, I believe it’s one of the main reasons that a lot of people can’t believe that God can really love them in the state they’re in. That’s a problem….and it desperately needs to be fixed!

When we’re loved unconditionally by someone (who we can see)….it makes the fact that God, (Who we can’t see), loves us,….believable! I think that’s the reason that the Father has given us a natural unconditional love for certain people. I’ve noticed that I have a pure, unconditional, immeasurable, and undestroyable (I just made that word up! I like it, too!), love for my parents, my kids (and their spouses, too!!) and my grandkids.  I expect I’ll have that same love for my great grandkids when they start showing up, too! I don’t have to work for it….it just comes naturally. But, outside that tight little group….it becomes exponentially harder to love. We do have to ‘work’ at it….even with our spouses. That’s my experience, anyway.

Here’s my ‘takeaway’; We’ve been given a ‘natural’ love for that little group of people I mentioned so we can know what the ‘real thing’ feels like. We can, if we’ve a mind to, love everyone like that. It’s true that we’ll most likely need the help of the Holy Spirit to get it done…but it’s do-able. He lives in us….and He’ll also love through us if we’ll just give him the opportunity.

My thinking is, we need to receive it…and give it,………and give it without restrictions! If you really want to see someone change for the better, love them unconditionally! We need to flip the switch on….and leave it on!

So, here’s the thing about unconditional love; ‘Conditional’ love isn’t love at all! So, if you’re not willing to love unconditionally, call it something other than love! ….’cause it’s not the ‘real thing’!!

I think you’ll like these, too!

Love Gives

How Are We  Doing in the Thing That Matters Most?

“Can We Love Like He Loves?”