Know the kind of love you are seeking and giving.

As I listened to a simple message shared by a college student, I reflected and learned.

If love is conditional. I love you if you do what I like and don’t do what I don’t like. I love you if you provide in a specific way or like the same things I like.

Because love is conditional. I love you because you are beautiful, successful, or respected. I love you because of what you have and what you can give me.

In spite of love is unconditional. I love you in spite of your faults, weaknesses, and struggles. I love you in spite of how difficult our relationship is or becomes. I love you in spite of your mistakes.

Sometimes people say they love you, but how they treat you does not match their words. The same is true for the claims that I care for or I respect you. But they might truly believe they love, care for, or respect you. Their concept of love might be different than yours. God’s love is the standard, and he always loves in spite of. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and he loves us in spite of.

No one else is capable of loving you as fully and as generously as God does. But the better we know and experience his love, the more purely loving we can be and the more wisely we can determine how people are loving us and how we can respond – not how we want but how God would respond.

Love in spite of.