If there were ever an attribute for a hallmark of Mental Health it would be one’s ability to give and receive love.
Oddly enough some people are able to give love but not receive it. Others simply are unable to give it at all. This is probably the more familiar case with most people.
None of this should come as a surprise to any of us as the ability to give and receive love requires strength, freedom and of course, love.
Some like to speak of this as Agape Love as if agape love were different than other love. Actually, I believe love is love but nonetheless a pure kind or form of love arrives without attachments or hidden agendas. Calling it agape love is okay with me.
Taking this a step further, we should all take notice of the origin of love and that is of course, God Himself.
As simple as all of this is, it would seem that love would abound us all: but as we all know—-it doesn’t.
And what are the stumbling blocks?
Pride, contempt, envy, jealously, selfishness, in other words—-SIN. This all blocks love.
In some cases we don’t love simply because we choose NOT to. This much the case when we fail to help or assist someone simply because we choose not to, not because we can’t.
And so it is with man and woman. In relationships, whenever the lust wears down and it comes down to pure relationships, we generally stumble because the relationship was built on sex and not on the characteristics of love.
This brings us all back to the issue of giving and receiving love. In some respects I say this is a skill set and thus, we need to give and practice it often in order to grow.
And in so doing we mature spiritually and mentally. The challenge is in giving of oneself and in becoming vulnerable with no holds barred.
In the end, it is what we will be known for in our living and in our passing. I think the highest calling indeed must be in this virtue. Nothing can be better than in giving and in receiving the benefits and substance of love
Hard Times Ministries 