Some people seem to believe that the world lacks love because people refuse to give it. That may be true but I believe people find it hard to give love simply because they have trouble receiving it. Lo and behold, the greatest challenge in loving is not so much in giving it, but in receiving it. Here are a few reasons why some people find it hard to receive love:
1. They think they don’t need it. Enter the “independents”. People who are so used to getting things for themselves that they don’t think they would need anything from anyone. These people will find out soon enough that no one is truly invincible. We all need to receive love and care.
2. They have a false sense of martyrdom. People think that to be selfless, one must always give and never receive. But truth be told, our fuel to love is hinged upon our ability to receive it. You cannot give what you do not have.
3. They think they don’t deserve it. This usually happens when a person is led to believe that he or she does not deserve good things in life because of what he or she has done in the past. This belief may come from a high sense of guilt from themselves or from the people around them. This may take a while to fully comprehend but the beautiful thing about love and receiving it is that it keeps no record of wrongs. Receiving love will always make you strive to be a better person. In that case, everyone deserves to be loved.
[second_picture]
4. They received a wrong idea of love from someone close to them. Some people are afraid to receive love because people around them who were supposed to give them love have misused that verb. They might have taught them that love can only be received if you can give something in return (conditional) or maybe even the previous item: that they do not even deserve to be loved in the first place. This leads me to my final reason…
5. They have not received it from the One True Source of Love. Drawing water from the river may carry with it sediments and may even pollute the water downstream, but drawing water from the spring, from where it came from, you will always get the freshest, cleanest, purest water. In that same way, receiving love from God, who is the source of love, is the only way we can truly know what love is. If we know what real love is, we can be able to give the right kind of love to others.
