By Back in the day when I was an evangelical Christian (yes, really), I spoke a lot about unconditional love. I believed that I acted inside that love. I believed that I understood what unconditional love really was.
The truth is, I was clueless.
It took a lot of changes in my life to realize that. It took leaving behind everything I thought I knew, everything I believed. It took discovering myself under all of the layers of learned behavior and belief/fear conditioning. I often liken those days to days spent in a cult.
Unconditional love is something that springs from inside you and because of that, nothing external to you can change it. Nothing someone does, nothing someone says can change that kind of love.
That’s a really powerful thing. It’s the kind of thing that changes lives. It changed mine. I’m not saying I practice it perfectly, I am, after all, still human. And I’m not aiming for sainthood here. I still make snap judgments about people. I still criticize things I know I shouldn’t. But I try to embody unconditional love to all.
It’s what drives me to act with kindness. To meet people where they are, as they are and try to be helpful without inserting my own prejudice and needs into their life. It’s why I can be friends with people so very different to me. How I can give of myself where others won’t.
Sure, sometimes I miss the mark, but the longer I practice this idea, the longer I choose to put love and kindness ahead of judgement and fear, the better I get at it. I just keep hoping to one day get it right.
I hope your Saturday is filled with the light of Love, Readers, and that you radiate that love back out into the world around you. Let’s light this place up!
Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash
Natalie J Case 