Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Love Dare - Day 10

Love is Unconditional

Whenever athletes are coached, one of the most important things they practice are the fundamentals. Attention to the basics is one of the most important things in almost any endeavor. This is true when it comes to marriage. The fundamental foundation of marriage is love. If we don't know how to love, then our marriage will not become all that God intended it to be.

The love we're called to have in our marriage is not a love based on friendship and it's not a love based on sexual passion. It's a love that is based on the same kind of love that God offers to us. The Bible tells us that we love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19).

Too often a person's love for his/her mate is based on what the person does, who he/she is or how he/she looks. Love within the context of marriage needs to be more profound than that because people's behaviors change and their looks change over the years. Each one of us needs to decide that we will love our spouse unconditionally because that is what God has called us to do. What's more, God demonstrates that same kind of love toward us. This is our chance to be like God!

Some of us may struggle with this because we haven't allowed ourselves to experience this kind of love from God. We haven't truly understood how deep God's love is for us. We must get back to the basics. We must not only understand but also experience God's forgiving, graceful, unconditional love. When we get that fundamental down, then we can move on to the next thing: sharing that same kind of love with our spouse.

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