Divine vs Unconditional Love

TYPES OF LOVE
 
DIVINE LOVE VS CONDITIONAL LOVE
 
This is going to be a series of articles about love.  In my previous instalment I talked about love in respect to self, God and your neighbour.  This article will discuss the concept of divine love or unconditional love in comparison to conditional or selfish love.
 
What is Divine Love?
It is the purest form of love given regardless of conditions, expectations or benefit.  This is the love we receive from our creator.  Despite our weaknesses, or the choices we make, God loves us all the same.  It is difficult for us as human beings to practice this kind of love – Usually we attach a result or a condition for loving someone.  It could just be for us to feel good about ourselves.  As long as the condition is removed or we stop deriving the benefit, we withdraw the love.  Have you ever caught yourself declaring that you once loved someone but this and that happened and how the love is gone?  This is not pure love but conditional love.  What it means is that you were happy loving the other person as long as you were receiving the benefit but things changed.  Even parents struggle to love their children unconditionally.  Life happens and we may get hurt and it puts condition on our love for our own creation.  We say “If only this child would listen to me …”  If we have more than one child we end up playing favourite i.e. loving one more than the other.  All this boils down to the same thing – conditional love.  We even love God as long as we can feel that he is doing something for us, even though he loves us with our imperfection.
 
Is it therefore possible for a human being to love unconditionally?  I believe we can if we ask the spirit of God to teach us how to love.  God is love, perfect love so he can show us how it’s done.  However, I also think it takes a lot of effort and dedication.  What the universe does is that as soon as we ask for something, we get it and we also get some lessons or trials that will test our sincerity or ability to sustain what we have asked for.  So when you pray for unconditional love you receive however, you may find that the person who you are trying to love starts pushing your buttons, getting onto your nerves.  This makes you want to give up but there is a greater reward if you can stick it through the pain.  It’s called the pain of loving someone but it does not last.  After the pain comes the bliss from knowing that you love someone despite their warts and all through thick and thin.  In the end you can observe their antics and smile as they behave like a spoiled brat just like we all do before God.  Is this not beautiful? When we practice divine love we become more and more like God as he is love and our mission on earth is to love.  We are in the school of love, learning how to love unconditional.  We also need to love ourselves despite our weaknesses and short comings and all the mistakes we have made in life.  Simply because God loves us all the same