In our culture, many of us are searching to really understand the idea of love. Maybe our marriages are not going as well as we would like, and we are thinking of bailing out. Or we are frustrated because by purchasing gifts for someone, we thought we were showing love only to find out that there was still an emptiness inside. Love involves acceptance. Today, the idea of love without conditions seems foreign to our society.
People bounce from partner to partner, looking for the elusive meaning of love.
We want to be unconditionally accepted for who we are, encouraged to develop to our full personhood, and be made to feel important and secure. We want someone to be committed to us, to stand with us through difficult times. In our attempts to find that person who would love us unconditionally, be committed to us through all the good times and the bad, we have found that in human relationships that the ultimate ideal of love falls short. This is not to say that we do not love, or are incapable of loving. Quite the contrary.