What’s in it for me?
Unconditional love means that we love, and thus seek the best for the other person, regardless of their response to us. We receive this kind of love all the time. God always bestows
His love on us unconditionally and His challenge to us in marriage is to love each other like He loves us. This kind of love focuses on meeting the needs of the other person. It is the greatest gift you can give your spouse. It is not based on their behavior, but on your desire to love them as Christ loved you.
In a healthy marriage, we will actually give unconditional love before we realize we’re receiving it. Far too many people are waiting for their spouse to make the first move. Someone has got to take the lead. Why not you?
Let me give you a suggestion. Say to your spouse, “I’ve been thinking about our marriage, and I realize that I have loved you conditionally. I think love should do better than that, and I want to make a fresh commitment to our marriage. I am going to ask you to give me one suggestion each week on what I can do to make your life better. Whatever you suggest, I’m going to do my best to do it.”
Still want to understand love better? Read 1 Corinthians 13, slowly, carefully and out loud.
Wow! What a great suggestion on how to improve our marriages. I feel that I have a great marriage, but who says it can't get better? I will make it my goal this week to strive to be a better wife and love my husband unconditionally.
Thank you for this reminder. I know this in my head, but I had forgotten this in my heart. I need to focus on this more intentionally. I think a lot of times we look to marriage help books with the expectation that "If I just follow this recipe, when I'm done I will have a perfect marriage" like we are baking a cake or something. Love is not really like that. We can't put time limits on it. And dependencies. Christ loved us, with absolutely no guarantee from us that we would love him back. He just loved us because he loves us. As you have said here, God wants this same commitment from us to our spouse. To love them even if they never return the same love to us. To love them simply because we love them – because God loves them. Not as a deposit with an estimated ROI that expects a set percentage of profit or else a retraction of investment will be exacted. Just unconditional love, with no strings attached.I know this. But I forget sometimes. I keep looking on the ROI and forget that Christ already gave me more than I deserve. It's my job to give that back to my husband.Thank you.God bless you,-Laurene
What timing, my S.O continues to ask me my idea of an ideal relationship and tonight I told him to be love unconditionally and what what written in this article is what I desire. Thanks for wording it so well.