//Mature people base a marriage on unconditional love.
I don't mean to quibble with this sentiment.^^^. But I'm not sure what it means. People use it differently.//
For me, it means viewing "Love" as a verb, and not an adjective. I choose to Love vs I feel Love. Once you view love as a verb that you choose, then you must decide when to choose it. Conditional love says that I will choose to love in reciprocation for being loved by you. Unconditional love syas that I will choose to love regardless of how I am being treated by you.
I think AD is giving us an excellent example of unconditional love. Her husband is emotionally abusing her. He is insulting her by shopping at a sex shop. He is rejecting her by leaving the marriage. And yet AD is choosing to continue to love her husband. This is how mature people who understand love behave. The decision to love was made the day she took her vows.
Immature Love = I feel love for you Conditional Love = I love you because you love me Unconditional Love = I Love you because I am a person who Loves.
The easisest example of unconditional love to understand is the love we have for our children. We don't stop loving them when they misbehave. The most powerful example of unconditional love is Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:8 says: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
I have rejected God, rebelled against him and refused him Love. Yet, he chooses to love me and expresses that love through the ultimate sacrifice of death on a cross. He does this, not becuase of a feeling, or in return for my love, but because he IS love.
